Nirvana
by STLHero
Summary: FemNaru. It was strange when Naruto really thought about it. For three years, she missed her home but the moment she came to accept her fate, was the moment that her past decided to come back and haunt her.
1. Chapter 1

Sliding her orange hoodie over her head, Naruto could only watch with blank eyes as the giant criminal wreck chaos on the train station. It must have been around two years since she came to this part of the world but the fourteen-year-old wasn't used to seeing how people abused their powers. Back home, only the Academy students and the ninjas could abuse their chakra in public. There weren't any rules about it but it was an unspoken rule since none of the civilians know how to use their chakra. Here, anyone that used their quirk in public was either a criminal, vigilante or a professional hero.

She leaned against her foot as a professional hero, who she could distinctly remembering being called Kamui Wood, swinging through the top of the buildings by the use of his wood quirk. In the corner of her eye, she could see some girls and women swooning over the man's action and the girl couldn't help but wince at this. Sakura used to make that same stupid face whenever Sasuke did some fancy moves or even breathed.

"What caused him to use his quirk?" Naruto couldn't help but ask her neighbour.

"He tried to steal some old woman's purse," the man answered, wincing as the criminal tore off the train station's roof. "He got cornered so he thought the only way out was for him to cause a rampage."

The blond-haired girl nodded her head and looked at her watch before looking back at the train station. Was she really going to bother about getting to class on time? Her teacher was already going to be pissed about the fact that she brought her hoodie to school, what harm would five minutes bring? It wasn't like she was late every day and the only problem she caused was her favourite orange jacket. After being in his class for two years, you would think her teacher would figure out by now that her jacket goes everywhere with her.

"Not only did you illegally used your quirk but you also hurt and rob someone," Kamui Wood said coldly. "Only a pure evil person would do that."

Naruto thinned her lips at the man's words and stared at the furious villain, who was still tearing the train station apart. The girls around her were swooning and declaring their devotion to the hero while everyone else cheered the man's words. In the corner of her eye, she could see one of her classmates jumping up and down at the action. What was so cool about his words? Kakashi-sensei sounded so much cooler than him. If her former teacher was here, he would have made every person swoon.

"Your punishment is…"

A giant blond-haired hero slammed her leg on the villain's chin, interrupting Kamui Wood from saying his move out loud. In fact from what Naruto saw, the man's wood was about to imprison the villain when that woman kicked the man's chin. Almost everyone had become silent from this move but the blue-eyed girl. She could only bite her lips to prevent the laugh that threatened to consume her.

It was just so funny to see someone else's attention being taken away from them.

"Gigantification huh? It's a common and quite powerful quirk, but could the threat of public property destruction limit its use? I guess it depends on whether or not she can manipulate her size at will."

Slowly turning her body around, the blond-haired girl could only watch with furrowed eyebrows as her classmate wrote down several notes into his notebook. Wasn't he the kid that always needed protecting from their angry classmate? She knew a classmate was here but the blonde hadn't realized which classmate was observing the fight. It was probably because she found the whole fight to be a bit too lukewarm for her taste.

Honestly, she didn't see why everyone had to swoon at these people's behaviour.

"Midoriya, it's time for us to go to class," Naruto called out to the older boy. She felt her eyebrows twitch when she saw that the green-haired boy wasn't even attempting to look away from the book or give her an indication that he heard her. "Midoriya! Class!"

Still no indication he heard her.

Shaking her head, the blond-haired girl slapped the boy's shoulder and smiled when he jumped up, effectively letting go of his notebook. It was cruel but Naruto would never deny the fact that she didn't like it when someone didn't pay attention to her words. In Konoha, no one paid attention to her because of the fact that she carried a monster inside of her. Here, she didn't want people's attention but when she did want it, she would get it.

"U-Uzumaki-san, I didn't n-notice you."

The blond-haired girl nodded her head and picked up his fallen book. "I can tell that you were more busy writing notes about the new hero then paying attention to the fact that we only have ten more minutes before we are considered late for school."

Izuku flushed red at her words but the blond-haired girl just ignored his embarrassed look and paid attention to the notebook in her hand. Flipping it open, she could see several pages filled with detailed notes and drawings of not only the heroes that appeared on television but of some of their own classmate. She could only frown at the very detailed notes that her classmate had on his tormentor.

"How many weeks did it take you to write these notes?" Naruto handed him back his book before swinging her own bag over her shoulder. Izuku blinked his eyes and the girl shrugged her shoulders. "It is obvious from your notes that you observed a lot of detail from the fights on the television and on the computer. It is kind of cool that you have that level of observation."

"It took me about 2 months to finish one notebook," Izuku admitted, rubbing the back of his neck.

Naruto whistled. "One notebook? How many notebooks do you have on superheores?"

"T-Thirteen."

She jerked her head when she heard him admit those words to her. Thirteen notebooks? If it took him just two months to finish one notebook then it must have taken him about six years to make notes on the heroes and the people of their class. Did she ever have that level of enthusiasm when it came to something that wasn't pranking? The memory of spending one whole night to master the shadow clone jutsu flooded her mind and the girl decided that yes, she did have that kind of enthusiasm.

She used to be happy about being a ninja but after what happened, the girl couldn't muster up the energy to be happy about her former occupation.

"Why do you have so many notebooks on superheroes? Some of your notes indicated that you have thought of ways to overcome them," Naruto couldn't help but point it out to the boy as they crossed the street that would lead them to their school.

"I-It's going to sound stupid but I-I want to become a superhero," Izuku admitted. "I know it is stupid for a quirkless person like me to want to become a superhero but I can't help but dream."

The blond-haired girl twisted her head around and said. "I don't think it is stupid for you to dream big, Izuku. There isn't a person in this universe that doesn't have big dreams; it is just that some people achieved their big dreams while others just ignored it. Some people had circumstances where they couldn't help but abandon their big dreams. As long as you are willing to do whatever it takes to get there and ignore what people say then you can do it."

Naruto could feel bile building up when she said those words to Izuku. She dreamt of becoming Hokage, dreamt of being the greatest Hokage that everyone could see but after what happened with Sasuke, she couldn't see it happening. A Hokage should be able to keep their promise but Naruto couldn't keep her promise. Yet she didn't want Izuku to give up on his dreams because it was just terrible when someone gave up on their dreams.

She would know because not a day passed when she didn't feel her heart breaking for what she was forced to give up.

* * *

Sliding into her seat, Naruto placed her head onto the table and listened as her classmates' chat about their plans for the weekend. While all her classmates talked about how they were going to have fun, all she could think about was how she was going to convince her boss to let her work on Sunday. She wasn't failing in school, if anything she was doing quite well, so it shouldn't be a problem for her to get her weekend filled with work.

She only lifted her head up when their homeroom door slid open to reveal their teacher carrying a huge stack of papers. Taking off her jacket, Naruto forced herself to sit up straight while the teacher separated the stacks of papers into piles. Was it that piece of paper their teacher wanted them to fill in last week about their future school? From the way the old man kept flickering his eyes at her, she presumed that the man was a little bit furious with her.

"Quit the ruckus," their teacher slammed his hands on the table, which got everyone to stop talking and start paying attention to him. "It has been two weeks and most of you are acting like you are in nursery school. You are in your third year of middle school and it is time for all of you to start _thinking_ _seriously_ about your future!"

Naruto didn't miss the way her teacher looked at her with disappointment when he stressed the two words _thinking seriously_. So it seemed like he actually did read all the forms that they gave him. All this time, she just thought that the middle-aged man was too busy encouraging them to become heroes or doctors that the man didn't actually care about what they want.

"I should probably hand you all your career forms but I can guess that almost all of you want to be a hero," their teacher continued, levitating each of the papers towards them. The words of their teacher earned yells of agreement from her classmates, who promptly showed off their quirks for everyone to see. The middle-aged man shook his head and gave them a stern look. "I know that all of you have wonderful quirks but it is against the rules to use them in school."

 _Yet you used them during class whenever you can't be bother to lift the whiteboard marker and you never notice the fact I used my clones,_ Naruto thought to herself, putting her head back down onto the table. Sometimes she wondered what was the point of them putting the rules when it was just so easy for her to break them. If her use of chakra was flashy then it would be a problem but ever since that day, she tried to avoid making her chakra stand out. It was her constant need to stand out and never listening to class that got her into this situation.

"Sensei! I'm not in the same category as these losers!" A blond-haired boy yelled, leaning against his chair. "My quirk is a hell lot better than everyone's crappy quirk."

Naruto tuned out her other classmate's yells and stared at the one boy that she couldn't stand. From the moment she met her fellow blonde, she knew that she didn't like him. It wasn't because he was obnoxiously loud since she used to be loud, but because of that cocky walk of his. It also annoyed the crap out of her that he never called her by her name but instead, he called her Whiskers.

"If I remember correctly Bakugou, you are aiming to go to U.A High School," their teacher said, picking up a piece of paper.

All her classmate's yells and protests became quiet at the middle-aged man's words. If everyone's eyes shone with anger just now, now that anger melted away and was replaced with three new emotions: fear, nervous and respect for the blonde. Naruto could only tilt her head at them and wondered what the big deal was. It wasn't anything worrying, was it? It was just some high school.

"It isn't just some high school, Uzumaki!" One of her classmates said and the blond-haired girl could only blink her eyes when she saw that everyone turned their attention to her. She could feel blood rushing into her face as both her classmates and teacher stared at her like she was silly for saying those words. "U.A High School is the best national high school for heroes. They are so selective that their cutoff point can be as high as seventy-nine! Not anyone can get accepted there."

Naruto could only sweat at the level of enthusiasm that her classmate had for the high school, before nodding her head to show everyone that she understood why it was a big deal. It was only when Bakugou began bragging about how amazing he did in the mock exams that the blonde relaxed her shoulders. Honestly, was it a big deal that she didn't understand why the school was so important? Couldn't everyone be a hero in their own way? The world was just so weird.

"Hmm, if I also remember correctly didn't you also plan to go to U.A High, Midoriya?" their teacher asked, snapping her out of her train of thought. Everyone in their class stared at the green-haired boy, who was now sinking into his chair, before laughing out loud at their teacher's words.

"Midoriya! He can't get into the high school with just his good grades!" One student pointed out.

"Izuku probably has a better chance of getting into U.A High then you do," Naruto declared, drawing everyone's attention to her. She straightened her back and narrowed her eyes at her sneering classmate. "If that high school is the best of the best than they probably don't want an idiot like you entering their school. After all, you barely passed our test last week."

The student scowled at the reminder and the blonde smiled in triumph before glancing at Izuku, who mouthed the words 'thank you' to her. The two of them might not be friends but Naruto could never stop herself from defending that boy when it was needed. In a way, the quietness and shyness of her classmate reminded her of the friend that was always there for her.

"Oi Whiskers, are you implying that someone like Deku can enter the same school as me?" Bakugou snarled, drawing her attention to him. "He's quirkless!"

Naruto stared hard at the older boy. "Yes, I'm implying that someone as _smart_ as _Izuku_ could enter U.A High School. He might not have the quirk needed but his brain and personality can make up for all the things he lacks. Considering the fact that you are entering U.A High, it isn't a stretch to think that Izuku can get in."

"What the hell are you implying, Whiskers?" He charged right towards her table, earning groans and sighs from all their classmates.

Naruto smiled innocently. "Wow and I thought you were smart but it seems like you can't understand Japanese since I'm saying that you have a shitty personality for a hero."

Growling, Bakugou swung his arm towards her table but the blond-haired girl slid out of her chair, grabbed hold of his arm and held it against his back. Everyone glanced at her and then to the furious blond-haired boy before looking at Izuku, who could only gape at the scene in front of them. Was it really that surprising she would protect herself from a mini explosion? She didn't want to hear their homeroom teacher complaining about the mess that they made.

"This is a prime example of why I think you have a shitty personality," Naruto said slowly as if she was speaking to a child. "A hero shouldn't get angry immediately. If it wasn't for the fact that I know how to defend myself, I could have gotten hurt and no one wants that."

"Don't fucking talk to me like I'm a child," Bakugou snarled.

The blonde raised her eyebrow and snapped. "Then don't fucking act like one! If you act like a fucking child then I will talk to you like I'm your babysitter."

"How many times have I told you not to fight and swear in the classroom! What are you two? A pair of barbarians!" Their homeroom teacher yelled, earning snickers from the members of the class. Scowling, the blond-haired girl released the older boy's hand and returned to her seat. She smirked when the older boy rubbed his hand from the pain before glancing at Izuku, who kept glancing at the two of them with a strange look in his eyes.

"Now that the pair of you have stopped fighting, I want to see you in my office, Uzumaki-san," their homeroom teacher said, earning frowns from everyone in the class. "We need to discuss about the form that you filled in."

Oh great, her teacher was going to give her the talk.

* * *

"Uzumaki-san, why did you give me a blank form when it came to your future high school?" Her teacher asked her as soon as he closed the door. Naruto rubbed the back of her neck and wished that words spilled out of her mouth like it always seemed to do. Why was it that when she wanted to say something, it never came out and when she didn't want to say something, the words came out? She felt her legs shake when all the teachers in the office had turned their attention to her. "Well Uzumaki-san?"

"I don't know what I want to be," she finally admitted. The homeroom teacher blinked his eyes, opened his mouth to say something but the closed it again. For the first time since she met the man, he actually had nothing to say to her. It was good since she didn't want the speech about how she needed to think about her future. She knew what she wanted to be and achieved the small step to get it, only to fail when it came to save her friend. There was no way she could find a dream to replace her dream of finding Sasuke or becoming Hokage.

"You know I'm surprised that one of my brightest students is saying this to me," her homeroom teacher finally said. Naruto raised her eyebrow at the middle-aged man, who snorted at her. "Why do you look so surprise? Just because I don't like the way you disrespect the school's rules, doesn't mean that I don't think you are smart. You have the third highest grade in the whole year and you don't know what to do. I really don't know what to say."

"Sensei, are you trying to imply something?"

"Bakugou wants to go to U.A High to become a superhero and the same goes for Midoriya," her teacher pointed out. "Now Bakugou's chances are high while Midoriya has a high chance in entering their general education department if he failed their hero portion of the exam. Everyone else in the class decided what they wanted to do, everyone but you and you are someone that can go somewhere with her life."

"You are just saying that because I have one of the highest grades in the class," Naruto pointed out. "Grades aren't everything."

Her homeroom teacher nodded. "I agree but you have a potential Uzumaki and it will be a waste for you to ruin that potential by continuing to work full time in a cafe. You protected Midoriya and defended him from Bakugou…doesn't that make you want to become a hero? Or consider going to a normal high school and then become a policewoman? It is clear to me that you can't help but protect the weak, even if you try to act otherwise."

Naruto could just stare at her teacher before looking at her hands. When people look at her hand, they probably saw soft hands that had never hurt someone but when she looked at them, she could only remember the blood that stained them. How could her hands protect people? How could she protect someone? She hurt so many people that she shouldn't consider it, but her teacher was right about something.

She couldn't help but protect the people that were weaker than her.

"I will think about applying to Yuuei."

If she had to choose between being a hero or a policewoman, she would rather be a hero for just one reason. Being a hero would bring her a lot less painful memories than a policewoman would.

* * *

A/N: I know this story seems similar to Whirlpool Memoir but I will reassure you that it will be different from the story.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: I would like to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows as well as everyone, who reviewed the last chapter.

* * *

Naruto slip her hands into her jacket and stared wide-eyed at the high school in front of her. People told her that U.A High was one of the best high schools in the country but they never told her about how huge it was. The way it loomed over her, almost made her want to turn her back around and go back home, but the thought of seeing her teacher disappointed forced her to walk through those gates.

She forced herself to look ahead and ignore how the people around her seem to be ready to jump up in excitement. This was going to be a piece of cake for her. Unlike these kids, she was the one with the most experience when it came to combat. It might had just been one year of being a genin but she faced insane men, a missing nin and even tried to punch a future Hokage. There was nothing they could throw at her that she hadn't faced before.

"Whiskers, what the hell are you doing here? No one mentioned that you were entering the school."

The blond-haired girl felt her lips twitch at the mention of the stupid nickname. She didn't need to look around to know who called her that stupid nickname because there was only one asshole, who would call her that insulting name. She had been praying to god that she never saw the jerk during the exam; apparently, god didn't think to hear her prayer for a nice, quiet day.

"I didn't think of joining a high school until sensei told me that he wasn't going to accept my decision," Naruto replied, clicking her legs together before turning around to look at Bakugou. The older boy twisted his lips into a scowl, which caused the girl to roll her eyes. "You want me to argue with him? The man has the right to evoke my right to work and I ain't taking the chance that he will do it—just so that I go to high school and not work full time in a cafe."

The teacher never mentioned he would evoke her right to work, but Naruto knew the man would do it if it meant that she would do what he wanted. For some stupid reason, the man decided that it would be a waste for her to work full time in a café. Did he really think she could make something out of herself? Just because she tried in school, doesn't mean that she was meant to be a hero. If her teacher's reason for her to become a hero or a police officer was all because she defended Izuku; then there would be plenty of people willing to do the same thing.

Any decent person would do what she did.

"The sensei was right about one fucking thing," Bakugou stated.

"And what would that be?"

"You would be wasting your time working in a café."

Naruto stopped in her tracks and stared at the furious boy with wide eyes. First it was her teacher, now it was Bakugou. Why did everyone think it was a bad idea for her to work in a café? It might not be the most paying job but it was peaceful. She might not be able to use her head a lot but it kept her head busy. If she went to high school or even fight then Naruto was just terrified that she would have those dreams again.

"Why the hell are you looking at me like that? You can call me an asshole but I'm not stupid," Bakugou snapped. "Even an idiot would agree that it would be a waste of your time to work in some stupid café."

"I never thought you were stupid, Bakugou," Naruto admitted. "I just think that you have a shitty personality and that you are a bully."

"Why the hell do you keep saying that?" He snapped.

The blond-haired girl folded her arms against her chest and said slowly. "Are you really asking me that? Nine months ago, you told Izuku that if he wanted to have a quirk so badly then he should go and kill himself. Do you have any fucking idea just how cruel those words were? Do you honestly have no idea just how powerful words can be?"

Bakugou blinked his eyes and Naruto couldn't stop herself from growling at him. Why did she even bother? It was clear the asshole had no clue about the impact his words could have done to Izuku. The boy was privileged as one could get. A powerful quirk that was worshipped by everyone, parents that loved him and don't forget about the friends that seemed to stick by him. Why the hell did assholes get everything? Why couldn't the nice person get everything?

"It was a fucking joke and Deku knew that."

The blond-haired girl stared at him before looking at the clear blue sky. "Do you really think suicide is some kind of joke? Did you ever consider what would have happened if Izuku had been depressed and did what you said? It just takes a couple of words to make someone breakdown and do something that they would never consider doing if they were in the right state of mind."

The boy frowned and opened his mouth to say something but Naruto was too weary to listen to what her classmate had to say. He could argue all he wanted with her but it would never change the fact that he told Izuku to go and jump off the building. It just took a couple of cruel words to make someone consider killing themselves.

It even took a couple of words for someone to consider the idea of running away from their home.

* * *

While the people around her were fidgeting in their seats or talking to their neighbours, Naruto placed her hoodie over her head and stare vacantly at the handout that some seniors had given them to read. There was no point for her to read the handout since she expected the practical portion of the exam was either to save someone or to attack a couple of villains. The heroes might be a little bit over the top but the job description hadn't changed from its definition…even if she wondered how some people become heroes.

"Am I the only one that seems nervous about this exam?"

Naruto tore her eyes away from the handout and stared at her seat partner, who kept fidgeting in his seat. There was nothing really special about this guy except for that little scar on his right eye and the warmness of his eyes. There weren't many people in this hall with warm eyes; in fact she could count the number of kids with warm eyes in one hand. Stuffing her handout into her pocket, the blond-haired girl shook her head.

"You won't be the first person to be nervous about the exam," Naruto reassured him. "It is just that some people are better in hiding their nerves than others."

The black-haired boy frowned. "But you don't seem all that nervous; in fact you looked like you are the most confident person in this hall."

She rubbed the back of her neck at the boy's observation and glanced at her fellow examinees, noticing for the first time that there wasn't a person in this room that didn't show a slight hint of nerves. Was she that obvious? Should she pretend to be nervous? But pretending to be nervous about this exam would take too much effort. She had went through the chunin exams, fought a fellow jinchuuriki and got swallowed by a snake; how the hell was this nerve-wrecking? This exam was going to be a joke compared to all the bullshit she was forced to go through.

"This exam won't determine my self-worth," Naruto looked up at the ceiling. "And I have failed so many exams that it is almost hard for me to become worried about failing since I'm so used to it. If I fail this exam then I will shrug it off and try again—it isn't a big deal for me."

"You're really manly, do you know that?" Naruto blinked her eyes and the boy grinned. "I wish I could think like you but I can't help but think about what if I fail my exam."

The blond-haired girl smiled wearily at the boy's words and stared at the handout in the boy's hands. Should she have told him that she really didn't care about failing this exam? That she didn't think she deserved to be a hero. Heroes weren't supposed to have blood in their hands. Heroes were supposed to keep the promises that they made even if it killed them. Heroes shouldn't run away when things didn't seem to go their way. Heroes were supposed to face their problems; not run away from it.

No, she wasn't meant to become a hero but she wasn't going to disappoint her teacher.

"You know if you want to pass the practical exam then you shouldn't think at all," the black-haired boy blinked his eyes and Naruto stared out at the platform. "Fighting doesn't really need much thinking and when it comes to saving people…you need to think of all the ways that you can help them. You save people even if they tell you that they don't need saving because you know that the consequence will be worse for them."

Heroes were supposed to save the people, who were secretly dying from their suffering. Heroes were supposed to be the people that destroyed the nightmares and save the kids that were being abused. They weren't supposed to ignore the cries of a child or pretend that a kid was okay when it was clear that he wasn't fine.

"My name is Kirishima Eijiro," the boy said, snapping her out of her train of thought. "What's your name?"

Naruto stared at him for a good couple of seconds and replied. "Uzumaki Naruto but you can call me Naruto."

"Naruto? Did your parents name you after the fishcake or the maelstrom?" Kirishima asked her as more and more teenagers filled the hall.

"Maelstorm." Naruto replied, staring vacantly at the empty platform. It didn't bother her that he asked her that question since everyone always make that comment when they learnt what her name was. As a little girl, she would tell her classmates that her parents named her Naruto for the maelstrom and not for some ramen topping. She would yell those words as they taunted her about how boyish her name sounded like and how her parents must have hated her for giving her that name.

Naruto had never really gotten the courage to ask the Third Hokage if her parents had really loved her and died or if they abandoned her like everyone claimed they did.

"I want to welcome everyone to today's live performance!" A man yelled, silencing everyone in the hall. "Now can everybody give me a 'hey'!"

Everybody just stared at the man, who didn't look one bit fazed about the lack of response. If anything, the man still had a large smile plastered on his face. "Alright that is fine my listeners! I'm here to present the guidelines of your practical exam! Are you guys ready?"

While everyone was too busy staring at the crazy man, Naruto decided to put her fingers into her ears. She was going to become deaf at the rate, the man was screaming those words. Didn't he know that some people's eardrums were more sensitive than others? Or was it just her? A quick glance at the hall told her that she was perhaps the only person, who couldn't handle that man's voice.

"Are you okay?" Kirishima whispered.

"That man is too loud," the blonde grumbled. "Doesn't he know he can talk through the stupid microphone without shouting?"

"Okay, let me tell you about how this test will go!" The man yelled as the screen behind him came to life. "Soon all of you will be experiencing a ten-minute-long 'mock cityscape' manoeuvres. Now I know some of you will be wondering if tools are allowed and the answer is yes! You can bring your tools if you have them with you. Now once I'm done presenting, all of you must head to your assigned venue!"

Almost everyone began to whisper to each other at the man's words with friends checking if they were put in the same venue. Naruto could only look vacantly at her card before finally slipping it inside her jacket. What was the point of her checking if she was in the same venue as her classmates? She wasn't weak enough for her to consider teaming up with them nor was she close enough for her to consider sending them a text message to ask.

There was just no point for her to waste her energy.

"Everybody, quiet down and let me tell you what you have to do!" The examiner said, drawing everyone's attention to him. "The goal of this exam is for you to earn points and the way for you to earn points is to use your quirks and disable those fake villains. Now the points assigned to the fake villain is based on just how difficult it is to defeat them. Now I just want to make sure that each one of you understand that it is illegal to attack the other examinees. We don't allow anyone to act as an antihero. Now are there any questions?"

 _When can we start this exam?_ Naruto thought to herself as everyone processed the information given to them. Everything the man had just said was clear enough, which was saying something since she usually needed to hear an explanation, three times before she could understand it.

"Yes, I have a question." A boy yelled, standing up from the seat in front of her. "There appear to be no fewer than four kind of fake villains on this handout! Now such an obvious error, if it is one, is a mockery for U.A High! Everyone in this room had applied to this school in the hopes of becoming model heroes! And you with the curly hair!" Naruto craned her head to find who the boy was pointing at and sighed when she saw that it was Izuku. "You have been muttering this whole time and that is distracting! If this is some sort of game to you then please leave immediately!"

Biting her lips, Naruto took several deep breaths and tried to remind herself that this wasn't her business. Just because she defended him, doesn't mean that it was her duty to protect him from the cruelty of the boy's words. In fact she wasn't all that close to Izuku nor did she have the obligation to yell at the boy for making that comment. She was here to take the exam and get out of here. She wasn't there to protect her classmate.

"Nice observation, examinee 7111," the man said, bringing everyone's attention back to him. "Let me explain the fourth villain to all of you. Now unlike the other villains, defeating the fourth villain won't earn you any points so you could say that he is more like an obstacle for all of you to overcome. Now if I were you kids, I would try my best to avoid that obstacle."

Naruto raised her eyebrow and stared at her handout before looking back at the examiner. Was he really asking them to avoid a villain? Weren't heroes supposed to charge after the villains? A real hero would attack even if a villain was hard because people's lives depended on it. It was for that reason those people were considered heroes. The Third Hokage was considered a hero because of his actions and the same went for the Fourth Hokage.

The Hokage was considered a hero to them because they sincerely tried to protect the people's lives, even if it meant sacrificing the happiness of a child.

* * *

Staring at the group of people in front of her, Naruto wondered what were the reasons that these kids had for choosing to become a hero. Perhaps she was cynical but the blonde knew that most of them didn't want to become heroes from the goodness of their heart. Maybe these kids were fooled into thinking that being a hero would be a wonderful job filled with so much respect. If that was the case then she knew that most of these kids were going to have all their thoughts ruined by their first job.

She would know since all of her expectation of shinobi had changed when she went on her first real mission. She had never thought about how a shinobi was a tool for their village until she met Haku. Sweet Haku, who only thought of Zabuza and couldn't even harden his heart to kill someone. Haku, the boy that looked at her like she was a girl and not one of the boys like everyone else did. Haku had been the one who made her want to be a better shinobi. He was also the first person to die in front of her.

"Begin!"

Naruto blinked her eyes and turned her head to look at her fellow examinees, who all had the same befuddled look on their faces. What did he mean by begin? Had the exam just started? Or did he mean something else? It wasn't like they could start running through the gates if it wasn't open, could they? A quick glance at the gate told her that the gates were indeed opened.

 _Oh, it seems like begin meant that the exam had started_ , Naruto mused to herself as she charged through the gates, leaving behind the confused kids. As long as the gates were open then it meant that it was time for her to beat some robots up. How many points does she need to pass? The examiner never mentioned how many points they needed and she knew from the amount of people in her venue that the points needed would be high.

After all, only few people were accepted into this high school and her teacher wanted her to be one of those few people that got into this high school.

Knowing this, Naruto ran through the streets of the fake city and punched every robot that she saw. She didn't know if she would pass the theoretical part of the exam but the blonde knew it wouldn't be a problem for her to do well in the practical. Most of these kids had no idea what it was like to be in danger or watch someone you care about getting hurt. They weren't force to see those things but she had. From the moment she was twelve years old, she saw things that most kids would never think of seeing and that would be her edge.

She shifted her right leg to the back before swinging it towards the robot on her right. If she failed this part of the exam then it would be a joke for her. She might be a terrible shinobi but Naruto would never let anyone think she couldn't fight. She wouldn't let anyone think that just because she looked kind of delicate, that she couldn't protect herself. She would show them just what real strength looked like.

"You have got six minutes and two seconds remaining!"

Naruto stopped running when she caught sight of one of the examinees trying to pull her leg out of the rubble. Glancing around, the blonde noticed that none of the other examinees seemed to have taken notice of it. She frowned before rushing towards the girl. Were these people so self-absorbed that they haven't notice the girl? The blonde couldn't help but asked herself as she knelt down to help the girl. Did they know what it really meant to be a hero? Beating villains up weren't the only thing that heroes did. Hell not even a shinobi would abandon some civilian to beat up some enemy ninja. Well, they would beat the enemy ninja and then help the civilian…but they helped at the very least.

"Stop trying to pull your leg out of the rubble," Naruto barked at the girl. The girl blinked her eyes and the blonde sighed. "If your leg is injured then you are going to make it worse. When I pull the rubble up that is when you try to crawl out of the way."

Frowning, the girl looked at her for a good couple of seconds before finally doing what she asked. Naruto took in a deep breath, placed her hands on the broken wall on the girl's leg and lifted it up from the ground. She could feel her heart thumping against her chest and her arm's sweating as the girl took her time to crawl out of the way. Once she was sure that the girl's leg was a safe distance away from the rubble, Naruto dropped it.

"Thank you."

"Is your leg okay?" The girl bit her lips and Naruto frowned before pressing her fingers against the girl's leg. From the way the girl kept wincing at the pressure in her leg, the blonde guessed that her leg wasn't all that fine. What does she do? She had no knowledge when it came to first aid and had no clue where the school's infirmary was. Should she leave the girl in some safe place and come back for her?

A quick scan of the mock city told her that there wasn't a single place that was safe. There were several robots around them and each one of them were being destroyed by their fellow examinees. What could she do? Wait, there was something that she could do.

Shaking her head, Naruto weaved her hands through the hand signs needed for the shadow clone jutsu. There was no time for her to go to the infirmary and then come back to the mock city to get more points. However unlike most of the people in this venue, she had her shadow clones to lightened up her work load. There was just no way that she could leave the girl by herself.

"Take the girl and take her to the school's infirmary," Naruto barked at her clone. Her clone glanced at the girl and nodded her head before scooping the girl into her arms.

"Wait! Why are you helping me to this level? Don't you care about how much time you are wasting doing this?" The girl demanded, stopping her clone in her tracks. "You won't earn as many points if you keep this up!"

Naruto snorted. "Any decent person would go to the level that I am going for you and if I want to be a hero then I need to go to a level higher than this, because a hero won't ignore someone in distress. Also who gives a fuck about the points? What matters is that you are okay."

"B-But your points!" She protested.

"Look I probably earned a lot of points already," Naruto said, twisting her body away from the girl. "I was the first person to run through those gates and I defeated as many robots as I saw. So if you care about me passing then I'm going to be fine. Now what you should be more concern about is getting that leg checked because I have no clue on how to do first aid."

"Three minutes left!"

Naruto shook her head and run away from the girl. Why did this girl care so much about the points? She probably earned fourty points already since she must have earned fifty points with the amount of robots that she defeated. What matter the most was that the girl was fine because there was no way she could allow herself to be responsible for not getting the girl, the proper care that she needed.

"Run in the other direction!" One examinee yelled at her as the other examinees began to run away. "The zero pointer is in that direction and the examiner wasn't lying when he said you should run in the other direction. You are going to get hurt if you go in that direction."

The blonde stared at him. "If this was a city filled with real people then do you think a hero would run away? A hero would sacrifice their life and destroy the villain, no matter how large it is, because people are counting on him. Just because it is dangerous and has no points, doesn't mean that I should run away."

The fifteen-year-old didn't bother to hear what the boy had to say and instead she continued to charge in that direction. Get hurt? Did he think that she cared about how much pain she would be in? Sasuke nearly sacrificed his life for Sakura and her despite knowing that Gaara could have killed him. She tried to fight Orochimaru even though she knew the chances of her winning was low and all because she wanted to protect her former teammates.

If she was going to become a hero then this wasn't going to be any different.

It was with that thought that Naruto jumped up in the air and smashed the large robot into pieces.

She might not have chosen to become a hero but if she was going to become a hero then Naruto would act in all the ways that a hero should act. She would become the hero that people would look up to.

She would become different from all the heroes in the television because Naruto would put the people first. She would show everyone that she was a good person. She would prove to everyone that she wasn't a joke. She was going to prove to everyone that she kept her promises.

She would prove it even if it killed her.

* * *

 _ **Q** _& _A_ :

 _ **Q: Are you sure that it took Izuku 6 years to fill his notebooks?**_

 _A: After seeing your calculation, I realize that I might have gone wrong with the calculation since I didn't take into consideration the number of months in the year._

* * *

A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter. Please tell me if there is anything that could be improved on, the characterisation of the characters or if you have any questions about the story.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: I would like to thank everyone that added this story to their favourite and follows as well as everyone that reviewed the last chapter.

* * *

"You know when most kids find out that they got a letter from their first choice, they either go out and celebrate with their friends or they sit at home and eat some ice-cream while complaining about the unfairness of life," Her boss called out to Naruto, who looked away from the dirty plates. She held out the acceptance letter that the blue-eyed girl swore she stuffed into her bag before she came here. "They don't decide to go to their part-time shift, in fact they demand to get a break!"

"Did you go through my stuff again! Isn't that a breach of privacy!" Naruto grumbled as she placed the dirty plates onto the sink before charging after the middle-aged woman, who held the letter high up in the air. She raised her eyebrow at the woman, who had stretched her arm to the height of the wall. Did she really think she forgot what her quirk allowed him to do? Even if she jumped, she would just change the direction of her arm.

"I went through your stuff because I found it odd that you didn't talk about whether you got in or not," her boss stated, shortening the length of her arm until it was to a normal length. She handed the letter back to her. "Most of the middle-school kids that are coming through those doors are talking about the high schools that they got accepted into."

"Most of them are kids that have parents, who pay the bills and rent," Naruto stated, stuffing her letter back into her bag. Her boss sighed and stared at her with so much pity that the blonde had to hold herself back from lashing out at her. Why must she pity her? At least she could pretend that her parents must have been some great people. At least, she hadn't seen them die in front of her like some people.

"Sometimes I forget that you are just a girl that is struggling to get by," her boss glanced at their young customers, who were all too busy smiling and laughing with their friends. "You have never once complained about the fact that you don't have parents."

Naruto looked down at her hands and then to the smiling customers before letting out a sigh. "I can't miss something that I never had, can I?"

"You have been alone since you were born?" the blond-haired girl nodded and her boss frowned. "Didn't your parents have any siblings? Or relatives that could have taken care of you? Maybe even friends who could have taken care of you! It isn't right to leave a child by herself."

The blue-eyed girl could only smile bitterly when her boss mentioned about how it wasn't right to leave a kid by themselves. Would her sweet boss think the same way if she knew what she carried inside of her? Did her boss truly think that people were kind? At the age of five, Naruto learnt the reality of life and that was no one was truly good. She learnt that people were cruel when it came to jinchuuriki like her.

It was a miracle that Naruto never chose to become the monster that they made her out to be.

"I don't know," Naruto finally answered. "I don't even know who my parents were or what kind of people they were. I don't even know if they would be proud of the person that I became or if they would be disappointed with the way I turn out."

Taking a deep breath, her boss walked over towards her and wrap her arms around her. For a brief second, Naruto stiffened and wondered what to do. She might have been fifteen but the blonde had never been hug before today. The Hokage was always just too busy for her to demand a hug from him. The matron hated her and refused to give her hugs while she didn't have many friends in the Academy.

It just felt kind of weird to be hug.

"I might not know your parents Naruto, but I know they would be proud of the brave girl in front of me," her boss whispered, running her hand through her hair. "They would have been proud of the girl that worked so hard to get to where she is."

Naruto felt her throat tightened when her boss mentioned about how her parents would have been proud of her. No one had ever said those words to her. The Hokage never talked about how her mum and dad would have been happy with her. He never talked about how pleased they would be with her or if he was even proud of her. This woman didn't even know her and implied that she was proud of her.

"Boss, you are probably the first adult to say those words to me," Naruto whispered as she pushed herself off the woman. She made her way towards the counter, where her notepad laid. She was almost tempted to rub her eyes, but if she did that then the woman would know that she was going to cry. There was no way she could allow herself to break down in front of everyone.

"Then the adults that you have met, have never truly seen how good your heart is," her boss declared, smiling widely at her. "Because if they really saw you then they would be telling you those words every single day."

 _But am I really all that good?_ Naruto couldn't help but ask herself as she stared at the smiling trio of friends. If her boss was that confident in her then why was it that no matter how much she tried that no one seemed to notice her? Why must they always ignore her? She couldn't help but ask herself as she stared at the trio in front of her. She forced herself to smile when the trio took notice of her.

There was no time for her to think about the past; right now, she only needed to think about showing people just how much of a good hero she would be.

* * *

Sitting down on the sand, Naruto could just stare blankly at the ripples of water from the sea before glancing at the unopened letter in her hands. A large part of her didn't have the courage to open the letter to see if she got in, while a tiny part of her just wanted to get it done and over with. If she failed the exam then it wouldn't be a big deal, but the thought of seeing her homeroom teacher and now her boss being sad made her heart throb and ache.

She fingered the envelope before looking at the families that surrounded her. Would it be a good idea for her to open it here? Maybe, she should have open it when she got it in the first place. It probably would have been a better idea to open it with her homeroom teacher since he was the one, who encouraged her to go to U.A High.

"Uzumaki-san!"

Naruto looked away from her letter and stared at the green-haired boy, who was jogging his way towards her. There was a large smile playing on his lips and the joy shining through his bright green eyes told her that Izuku had gotten accepted by the high school. The boy, who had no quirk, had no fear when it came to checking his letter, while she couldn't even bother to steady her hands to find out the truth.

"Hey Izuku," Naruto said, hiding the envelope behind her back as the boy took a seat beside her. "What brought you here to the beach?"

"I-I decided to take a jog," Izuku answered, crossing his legs together. "What about you? I have never seen you come to the beach before."

Naruto raised her eyebrow and the boy frowned, before flushing red as he realized what his words sounded like to her. She allowed her expression to become blank as her classmate tried to explain to her that he wasn't hoping that she came to the beach or was stalking her. She should tell him that she understood what he meant, but it was just so funny to see how her shy classmate could become so flustered.

"Don't worry Izuku, I don't think that you are a stalker," the boy relaxed his shoulder and the girl looked out at the sea. "I don't usually come to the beach but my boss insisted that I ended my shift early and go out with my friends."

Izuku frowned and stared at her but Naruto could only force herself to look at the clear blue sea. The both of them knew that she didn't have any friends in their school, not because they avoided her but because she didn't like getting close to people. As a little girl, she had always wanted to be surrounded by people. She always wanted to have a thousand friends but now it was the last thing in her mind. After what happened with Sasuke, it was just too risky to bare her soul to anyone.

She could never let herself be vulnerable to someone, only for them to throw it at her face. Naruto had tried so hard when it came to Sasuke but he made it clear that he thought that their bond was just a one-way street. She tried so hard with Sakura yet her teammate didn't care one bit about what happened to her. She had always thought if she kept giving that one day someone would do the same for her.

It turned out that she was wrong.

"Uzumaki, what is behind your back?" Izuku asked, snapping her out from her train of thought. The blue-eyed girl opened her mouth to tell him that it wasn't any of her business but the sincerity in his eyes made her close her mouth. She couldn't be rude to someone, who had never acted bad towards anyone.

Naruto took a deep breath and showed the letter to her classmate, who glanced at the letter and then to her. She kept her eyes fixed on the ground, not bothering to see what were the emotions running through his eyes. It was cowardly but the blonde didn't want to see the hurt in his eyes when he realized that no one told him about it. She just wanted him to bask in his happiness before realizing that another person entered the school.

"I got my letter this morning," Naruto explained. "And I couldn't leave it inside the apartment since it would be so hard for me to find it, so I brought it with me to work. Of course, I didn't consider the fact that my boss would snoop through my stuff and find my letter. Two hours before my shift was to be done, she tells me that I should go out with my friends and see if I got in with them."

Izuku nodded. "Why haven't you open it?"

Would it be silly of her to admit that she was scared to open it? Naruto knew entering this high school wouldn't determine her future but it was still terrifying for her. It would be the first time in her life that she entered a high school without trying to cheat her way in. It would be the first time that the odds weren't stacked against her. It might even be the first time that she wouldn't face the discrimination of being a jinchuuriki.

"I don't know what I would do if the letter says that I didn't get in," Naruto said, staring down at her letter. "It's stupid, isn't it?"

Her green-haired classmate shook his head. "I don't think it is stupid, Uzumaki-san. I think it is normal to be scared about what the letter says since it determines whether you got into high school or not, but I don't think you have anything to be scared about."

Naruto raised her eyebrow at her classmate, who smiled hesitantly at her before looking out at the sea. Why did he think she have nothing to be scared about? She did well in the practical exam but there was just no telling how well she did in the written part of the exam. She had barely used her clones to study for the exam since she couldn't take the chance that they would slack off.

"Why would you think like that?"

"Because you are always helping people and you are probably one of the strongest people that I know," Izuku replied. "It also doesn't help that you are one of the smartest kids in our year so you are very likely to get in. I mean I got in, and if I could get in then you can too."

Naruto stared at her classmate and then looked at the letter in her hand. Taking a deep breath, the blond-haired girl slowly ripped the envelope apart, before taking out the small projector from the envelope. Her classmate was right. If the kid with no quirk could get in then she could also get in. There was nothing for her to be scared about. This letter won't determine her future. There was nothing for her to lose if she didn't get in; it wasn't like she always dreamt of being a hero.

"I've got some news for you, my lovely examinee!" The examiner yelled and Naruto couldn't help but flush red as everyone in the beach stopped what they were doing and stared at the projection. In the corner of her eye, she could see the same trio from the café, staring at the projection with curiosity. "Listen up, Uzumaki Naruto!"

Naruto forced herself to look up at the projection while her classmate stared at the projection with curiosity. All around them, the people were whispering and glancing at her with expectation and wonder. It was a bad idea to open it in public but the blonde wanted someone with her when she got her results. It seemed kind of funny but Izuku was probably the person that she wanted around her.

He was the only person that didn't seem to have so many expectation.

"Congratulations Uzumaki Naruto, you have been accepted into U.A High," the man declared and the blonde couldn't stop herself from blinking at the man's words. "Not only have you done well in your written and practical portion of the exams, but you went the extra mile and send an injured person to the infirmary. Recovery girl wants to thank you for that since it is rare for a student to go that far. Anyways, congratulation!"

She got in.

 _She got in._

She got in.

That was the only thing that seemed to be running through her mind while the people around her whispered the news to each other. For the first time in her life, Naruto passed an entrance exam without cheating. For the first time ever, she hadn't been discriminated because of the monster inside of her. She didn't know whether to cry out of happiness or out of despair that things would have been different for her if she didn't have the Kyuubi.

It didn't matter, did it?

Naruto was going to become one of the greatest heroes in the world and it was all thanks to one person.

* * *

"Uzumaki-san, what are you doing here? And how did you find out where I lived?" Her homeroom teacher asked, stepping outside his porch. The irritation in his face slowly disappeared when Naruto handed him the letter that came attached to the envelope. He glanced at her and then to the letter before looking back at her. "Is this what I think it is?"

"It is my acceptance letter from U.A High," Naruto confirmed, looking down at her legs. There were so many things that she wanted to say to him but the words seemed to be jammed in her mouth. What could she tell him? Did the words thank you enough to describe how much it meant for her that he actually believed in her? Could she tell him that no one believed in her like the way he did? Iruka-sensei didn't have that belief until she defeated that asshole Mizuki.

"You know I'm not surprised that you got in," her homeroom teacher finally said, giving her a large smile as he read through the letter in his hand. Naruto tilted her head and stared at the middle-aged man, who looked away from the letter and stared at her with a warm smile. "Were you that surprise when you got your letter? Didn't I tell you that you are someone who can go somewhere with your life?"

"You did but I don't understand why you were so interested with my future," Naruto admitted, looking down at her hands. "I mean why me? Why did you care so much about me?"

Her teacher stared at her for a good couple of seconds before pulling her inside the house. She could only follow him with a vacant look as he lead her to the living room. It had been bothering her for months but it only reached her boiling point today. Her boss had so much belief in her and so did Izuku, and each of them gave her their reasons. Yet Naruto never heard why her teacher went the extra mile when it came to her.

He told her that she had potential but Naruto wanted to know the reason why he wanted to see that potential. There must have been a lot of kids in their year with the ability to go to U.A High, so why did he pick her? Was it because of pity? Or did he truly believe in her? She didn't even know why she wanted the answers to her thoughts. She got in and she was going to become the hero that protected the people.

She was going to put the people first.

"Uzumaki-san, do you know what a teacher's job is?" Her teacher asked her as he handed her a cup of tea. She shook her head and the middle-aged man smiled. "My job isn't just teaching you and handing you sheets of paper; my job is also to act like a parent. Just like any parent, I will be disappointed to see my kid didn't reach her full potential. I will be upset if I see that my kid isn't happy with her life. Did you honestly believe that you would have been happy working in a café? Did you really think you are not meant for more in life?"

"I would have been content with having a simple job," Naruto pointed out.

Her teacher nodded. "Content is different from being happy, Naruto. You might be satisified with how things turned out but you would always be wondering if things would have been different if you had the courage to be something else. The only time I have ever seen you act a little bit happy is when you are protecting Midoriya or any kid that is being bullied. You become less withdrawn when you see someone is hurt and I know that means you are very capable of being a great hero. I didn't want to see your potential wasted."

The sincerity in his eyes almost made her want to cry and admit to him that no one ever thought she was capable of anything. She wanted to tell him that those words meant a lot to her because most people would have given up on her. Everyone in the village thought that she would be a terrible shinobi and it turned out that they were right. She was a terrible shinobi but maybe she would be a great hero.

She had to be if her homeroom teacher had so much faith in her.

"Thank you," her teacher blinked his eyes and Naruto smiled at him. "Thank you for believing in me, sensei. I wouldn't have applied to U.A High if it wasn't for the fact that you pushed me."

Her teacher ruffled her hair and said. "You want to thank me? Go and show the world that you are an amazing hero. I want you to show them that amazing hero that I know you can be and as a sign of encouragement, I'm going to treat you to whatever food that you want to eat. Is there anything that you want to eat?"

"Ramen."

Tomorrow, Naruto would worry about the price of the school uniform and the price of the school but for now, she wanted to celebrate her acceptance letter with the first person that believed in her.

* * *

Q&A

 _ **Q: Isn't Kirishima a redhead?**_

 _A: Yes, Kirishima is a redhead but it isn't his natural hair colour. If you have read the manga then you would have known that his natural hair colour is black._

 _ **Q: Did Naruto's parents abandon her?**_

 _A: No, they didn't abandon her._

 _ **Q: Does this mean that Izuku didn't get into U.A since Naruto smashed the robot?**_

 _A: No since Naruto was in a different venue from Izuku as people from the same middle school can't be in the same venue._

* * *

A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter. Please tell me if there is anything that could be improved on, about the characterisation of the characters or if you have any questions about the story.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: I would like to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows as well as everyone that reviewed the last chapter.

* * *

Walking through the gates, Naruto couldn't help but stare blankly at the large building in front of her while the kids around her were laughing and knocking each other's shoulder. She shook her head and then stared at the map given to them by the school. From what she could recall, the school had decided to place her in class 1-A, which was on the first floor of the main building.

"You're that cool girl that took me to the nurse"

The blond-haired girl stuffed the piece of paper into her pocket before twisting her head to see an orange-haired girl jogging towards her. There was a large smile plastered on the girl's face as she placed her hands on her chest, taking deep breaths before looking up at her. The joy in the girl's eyes told her that she was truly happy to see her even though the two of them had never really interacted with each other.

"And you are the girl that asked me why I went that far to take care you to the nurse," the girl flushed pink but the smile on her face didn't fade one bit. "If you excuse me, I need to get going to my class. It won't look if I'm late for class on the first day of school."

"I never got to thank you for taking me to the nurse!"

Naruto stopped walking and turned her head to look at the girl, who looked down at her hands before looking back at her. She should turn her body back around and make her way to class, but a part of her wanted to hear what the girl had to say to her. No one had called her cool before and very few people told her the words 'thank you'. This girl, right in front of her, would be the third person to thank her.

"Why do you want to thank me?"

"No one seemed to have notice that I was injured but you did," the blond-haired girl slowly nodded her head and the orange-haired girl smiled. "I thought that everyone was too focused on the exam to notice that I was in pain, which was why I tried to pull my leg away from the rubble. Recovery girl scolded me for doing that. She said that I made my leg worse and that if you didn't take me to her then my leg would have been crushed from the pressure. Even though I tried to encourage you to do the exam first, you were more concern of taking care of me and I can't help but thank you for that."

She stared blankly at the smiling girl and then to the smiling students surrounding them. Three years ago, Naruto would have said that it wasn't a problem with a smile on her face. Her past self would then gloat about it to her teammates, telling them that this was proof that she was awesome. Her current self had no idea what to say to the girl because while it wasn't a problem, she didn't know how to talk with so much sincerity.

Naruto couldn't even force herself to smile at the girl.

"A hero should put the well-being of others before themselves," Naruto finally answered. "I couldn't leave you there because not only would it be a shitty thing for me to do, but also because that isn't what a hero is supposed to do. Heroes need to rescue as many people as they can and you needed rescuing."

The green-eyed girl stared at her for a good couple of seconds before smiling brightly at her. "My name is Kendo Itsuka but you can call me Itsuka-chan. What's your name?"

The blue-eyed girl flickered her eyes from the girl's smiling face to the sky in front of her. This girl barely knew her but she was already giving her the privilege of calling her by her first name, while her teammate in Konoha always got irritated when she called her Sakura-chan. She used to yell at her for acting like that the two of them were close to each other, even going far as to tell her that they weren't friends.

She doesn't know what to feel.

"Uzumaki Naruto but you can call me, Naruto-chan," Naruto finally said, looking away from the girl.

The girl tilted her head. "Uzumaki Naruto? That's an awesome name but I think I'm going to call you, Naru-chan."

Naruto swirled her head to look at the girl, who still had a large smile on her face. There was no coldness or taunting in her eyes, there was only awe in her eyes. Did the girl think her name was cool? Wasn't she going to comment about how boyish her name sounded? Most girls would tell her about how her name was so ugly. No one talked about how cool her name was. No one seemed to think just how nice her name was.

"N-Naru-chan?"

The girl nodded her head. "Naruto is a great name but Naru-chan is the nickname for the sweet girl that rescued me from the rubble. I hope you don't mind that I'm being straight-forward about it, but I want us to be the closest of friends. I actually tried to ask the school about you but they refused to give me your details, saying that it is a breach of privacy."

Naruto tuned the girl out as she continued to prattle on about how difficult it was to find her and how she hoped that she passed the exam. Friends. This girl barely knew her and she wanted to be friends with her. Did she even know how to be friends with someone? Could she allow herself to let people in again? She had been hurt by the people that she thought were her friends. She had been betrayed by the one person that she thought would never betray her.

Yet Naruto also know that she couldn't live her life if she continued with her thoughts.

* * *

Half of the seats were taken by the time Naruto entered her new classroom. Rubbing the back of her neck, the blond-haired girl scanned the classroom to find the perfect place for her to sit. There were around five empty seats with each seat being from one of the five rows. There was an empty seat between a black-haired girl and a boy with bicoloured hair while there was a seat behind a boy that had hair, which reminded her of gapes. She didn't want to sit in the front row since she hated having attention drawn towards her.

"Isn't it awesome Naruto, we're in the same class!"

Naruto blinked her eyes when a red-haired boy called out to her. She titled her head and knitted her eyebrows together as she tried to remember who the boy was. There was no doubt that he looked familiar to her but she didn't know why he looked so familiar with her. Was it his hair? No, she would recall if she met a red-haired boy. The boy frowned at her and the blonde couldn't help but notice that there was a small scar above his right eye.

"You're Kirishima, aren't you?" The boy grinned and nodded his head. "Did you dye your hair?"

Kirishima nodded. "I wanted to reinvent myself before school started, so I thought dying my hair red was a great way to do it."

The blond-haired girl furrowed her eyebrow at her new classmate's words. Reinvent himself? Why would he want to reinvent himself? It wasn't like he had a shitty personality and decided to have a change of heart. He was a very nice person from what she could tell from her limited interaction with him. There was no need for him to reinvent himself but staring at the boy's cheerful eyes, she couldn't bring herself to tell him those words.

"It looks good on you," Naruto finally said as she made her way to the seat between the bicoloured boy and black-haired girl. The red-haired boy blinked before smiling widely at her, but the blond-haired girl couldn't bring herself to smile back at him. There was just so much emptiness inside of her that she didn't know if her lips could still tilt upwards like before.

She shook her head and pulled a book from her bag. Perhaps she was a sadist but when Naruto saw that the book was written by that perverted sannin, she couldn't stop herself from buying the book. Maybe it was the fact that a part of her regret the way she talked to him or maybe it was because she missed _seeing_ that perverted man, but she wanted to read his book. The book, whose character had the same first name as her. The book, whose main character reminded her of the perverted man that took the time to teach her the rasengan, which was the most powerful jutsu in her arsenal.

"Please remove your feet from that desk!" Naruto looked away from the book cover and watched with blank eyes as her new classmate yelled at Bakugou, who had his legs on the chair. "Do you realize your actions is insulting to every student who had come to U.A before us! Do you not care about how you are insulting the people who made this desk!"

Naruto took a deep breath, put the book on the table before marching towards the two arguing boys. It wasn't any of her business that Bakugou was being an ass. She shouldn't give a shit about the fact that the two of them were going to fight on the first day of school. It wasn't like it was going to affect anyone if those two yell at each other. She repeated those words to herself as the two boys continued to argue.

It seemed like some habits were hard for her to kill.

"The first day of school had barely started and you are already insulting people," Bakugou twisted his head and glared at her, but the blond-haired girl held her ground. "I know you have a brain there so use that head of yours, and think carefully at how this would look like to the teacher and how this would label you. If you keep your feet on the table then the teacher would label you a delinquent."

"You think I give a shit, Whiskers?"

"Do you even have a clue on how people perceive you?" Naruto folded her arms against her chest. "If you keep acting like a shitty person then people are always going to think that you are a villain! It is one thing to have the strength but it is a whole different story when you have the personality of an ass!"

The blond-haired boy stared at her for a good couple of seconds, before glaring at her. Did he honestly think people were going to be happy to see him when he rescued them? Did he really think it is okay to act like a delinquent to everyone? She used to smile whenever Sasuke's brother came to visit the school, because of just how polite he was to everyone. Unlike the other shinobi, Itachi had always been kind to her. He used to look at her with some degree of warmness while everyone just gave her that cold look.

It was just sad that the one person, who appeared to be kind, was also the same person that damaged her teammate.

"Are you done scolding him?" Naruto frowned and twisted her body around to find a tired-looking man standing behind her with an unamused look. "I hope you realize that this is the hero course and not some place where you can act like his mother."

The blonde flushed red before making her way to her seat. Was she really acting like Bakugou's mother? Naruto couldn't help but ask herself as she sunk down into her seat. She couldn't just ignore the fact that the asshole was going to start a fight with someone or that he was acting in a way that made everyone think he was a bad person. Even though he was an asshole, she wanted him to at least pretend to be a great guy to everyone.

"It took all of you ten seconds to quiet down," the man stated as he placed a sleeping bag beside the floor. "Ten seconds that was wasted because none of you know just how precious time could be."

Naruto slipped her hands into pocket and glanced at her classmates. Most of them were gawking at this teacher while only Izuku seemed to be looking at the guy with a frown. Did her classmate know the guy? Was he a famous hero? Because he didn't really look all that flashy if you asked her. Most of the heroes that she saw on television or even visited the café were flashy.

This guy looked like he barely got out of the bed.

"I'm your homeroom teacher," the man said as if none of them had realized this. "My name is Aizawa Shota and I'm pleased to meet you."

He might be pleased to meet them but Naruto wasn't sure if she was pleased to meet him.

* * *

The blond-haired girl could only frown as she stared at the baseball pit in front of them. What was their teacher planning for them to do? Why did he tell them to go change their clothes? Most schools would start with talking about what they expected or give them the timetable. There hadn't even been ushered into the main hall for some opening speech from the principal or even some fancy ceremony. It seemed so odd if you asked her.

"I brought all of you here so that I can evaluate your quirks," Aizawa informed them.

Most of the students around her gawked at his words before glancing at each other as if to confirm if what he said was true. Naruto could only stare at the man's back, not bothering to interact with the other kids. Did it surprise her? Yes but it really wasn't a big deal for her. Her quirk was her chakra since there was little to no one, who had her abilities. Out of most people, her chakra was considered to be a very strong quirk.

"What do you mean an evaluation? Aren't we going to go to the entrance ceremony? Aren't we going to talk about the guidance sessions?" One girl protested.

"If you want to become heroes then consider those things a waste of your time," he twisted his whole body around and gave them a serious look. "When people say that U.A High is known for having a freestyle educational system, they are not just talking about the students. The words 'freestyle educational system' also applies to us teachers as well."

Her classmates paled at his words while Naruto frowned at his words. There was something about those words that made her feel uneasy about what he planned for them to do, during their evaluation. Perhaps it was silly of her but she could distinctly remember Kakashi-sensei and how he told them about the second genin exam. He had threatened to expel them from the program, pitted them against each other before allowing them to pass.

At the time, she had been happy to pass the genin exams but Naruto wondered if he made a good call when it came to them. He allowed three kids to pass even though the three of them couldn't work together. He must have known that their personalities didn't suit each other but he let them pass. From what she saw in this part of the world, he should have let them fail and send Sasuke to therapy.

"In middle school, all of you had played the games: softball, long jump, the 50-meter race, endurance running, grip strength, side-to-side stepping, upper-body training and the seated toe touch. Those were all the gym tests where you weren't allowed to use your quirks," Aizawa picked up the baseball. "Now this country still insists that we need to prohibit quirks when we are calculating the averages of those records. If we were to think about it carefully then we will see that it isn't rational. If a person was to look at it, the department of education is just procrastinating."

Naruto stiffened when the teacher flickered his eyes at her. Did he know the truth? Had they found out where she was? He promised her that he wouldn't tell anyone where she was going. Did he break that promise to her? No, he couldn't have broken his promise. He couldn't even convince her to stay in Konoha so how could he tell anyone? It was just her paranoia.

"Uzumaki," Aizawa said, snapping her out of her train of thought. "How far could you throw in middle school?"

"150 meters," Naruto rubbed the back of her neck when most of her classmates gawked at her. Bakugou and Izuku grimaced at her words; no doubt they remembered how the baseball coach kept pushing her to join his girl's team. He used to come to the class and order her to join the team, telling her that she needed to take up a hobby. He just wanted her to join the team because he wanted to win, not because he actually cared about her.

"Try it with your quirk," Aizawa ordered, throwing the ball at her. "I don't care what you do but don't ever leave the circle. I want you to give it all that you have got."

Nodding, Naruto stared at the ball and then to the field in front of her. Everything that she got? She bit her lips and closed her eyes. It had been a long time since she focused her chakra to the point of her fingers. Had she even done it before? It might be a little bit risky for her since her chakra control was nothing to brag about, but there was no harm on her doing it.

Taking a deep breath, Naruto shifted her body and channelled her chakra into her arms before swinging the ball out into the air. This was the best that she could do with the control that she had. Until just a couple of months ago, she hadn't considered controlling her chakra since she never considered fighting again. With her track record, it had been the last thing that she wanted.

"1km," Aizawa said, holding out the digital meter. "This evaluation doesn't just show you how good you are with your quirk but it also shows how important it is for everyone to know their limit. Knowing your limit is the first logical step in figuring out what kind of hero you will become."

Most of the kids didn't seem to be paying attention to his words instead they were looking at her like she was some out of this world being. She rubbed the back of her neck and wished for her orange jacket. Why didn't she bring it with her when she had the chance? There was no way that she was going to be used with people looking at her like they did. She just wanted her face not to be known by anyone.

"T-That's amazing," one student said.

"1 km? Are you serious?"

"So we are allowed to use our quirks for real!" A blond-haired boy said. "I knew the hero course was great!"

Their teacher didn't smile at the student's words, instead he gave them an unimpressed look. It might have been her imagination but the man had a dark amused look on his face as if he was going to have so much fun in spoiling their thoughts. Honestly, the more that man spoke, the more she was reminded of Kakashi-sensei and that wasn't a good thing in her eyes.

She understood why Kakashi-sensei chose to train Sasuke in the chunin exams but she didn't understand why he never took the time to train her or Sakura as well.

"You think it is amazing? All of you are hoping to become professional heroes once your three years in this school is done," Aizawa said. "And all of you think that you are going to have fun and play games, well you are wrong. The person with the lowest score across all eight events will be judged as hopeless and they will be expelled from the program."

Naruto clenched her hands into a fist while everyone else gulped at his words. Expelled? Was this true? Or was he going to give them a second chance? She stared into the man's eyes, noticing that his eyes lacked any emotions. He was serious about this. Just like Kakashi-sensei, he planned to expel the person with the lowest scores. Kakashi-sensei had barely given them a second chance when it came to the genin exam and if it weren't for the fact that Sasuke used his head and gave her the rice, then they would have failed.

Kakashi-sensei claim to prioritize teamwork and failed every team that didn't work together, but he passed the team that could barely work together.

She licked her dried lips and looked up at the sky, where the clouds were loitering around. Kakashi-sensei was wrong to pass them but there was no way that she was going to let Aizawa-sensei fail her because she couldn't do well in some physical exercise. She was going to show him that she was more than capable of dealing with whatever he planned to throw them. She was not going to disappoint her middle school teacher or boss. She was not going to let this tell her that she couldn't become a hero because Naruto was going to be the hero that heard the people.

She was going to save everyone especially the people, who were abandoned by their society.

* * *

Naruto Uzumaki was a very odd girl, Aizawa mused to himself as he stared down at the girl's file. From the moment, he had step into the classroom, the girl had shown absolutely no emotion in her eyes. Most kids had some form of emotions in their eyes but this girl's eyes were cold. Yet despite this coldness that she presented herself to be, she hadn't hesitated to take someone to the nurse.

She hadn't been afraid to attack the zero-pointer robot and had even explained to the running examinees, why she was going to destroy the robot. Aizawa had agreed to a certain point about the girl's thoughts, but there was one thing about the girl's words that concerned him. It was the idea that a hero needed to sacrifice their life to save the people. It worried him that a girl had the thought of putting her life at risk if it meant that she defeated the villain.

What gave the girl the idea that she needed to go that far? He couldn't help but ask himself as Uzumaki whizzed past Todoroki. Didn't she understand how valuable her life was? And also why was the girl's file nearly blank? The girl hadn't mentioned where she was born, made no mention about her parents or even which elementary school she went to. It was almost like she was trying to hide herself from the world. It was like she was terrified to admit where she came from because no one would go to the level that she did.

"1.98 seconds."

Aizawa blinked his eyes and stared at the blond-haired girl, who didn't seem to be happy about the score. If anything, her eyes didn't even light up with any emotion. Rubbing his chin, he glanced at the other students, who were all chatting about the improvement they had. Why was this girl so emotionless? What the hell happened for a kid to become this way? He glanced at the file and wished not for the first time that the file wasn't so empty. It would be a breach of privacy if he went to the girl's apartment without her permission.

If he wanted to know the girl's problem then he would need to gain her trust.

He needed to gain her trust because something told him that the girl would never come back to this place if she realized that someone entered her apartment.

* * *

 **Q & _A:_**

 **Q: Is Naruto from the Elemental Countries or is she from a hidden village in BNHA universe and is a child soldier?**

 **A:** _Naruto is still from the Elemental Countries but the Elemental Countries exist in the same universe of BNHA. It will be further explored in the story._

 **Q: Does Naruto have a quirk or is she passing chakra as her quirk?**

 _A: Naruto is passing off her chakra as her quirk._

* * *

 **A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter especially the characterisation of the characters. Please tell me if there is anything that can be improved or if you have any questions about the characters.**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:** I would like to thank everyone that reviewed the last chapter and added this story to their favourites and follows. I'm sorry for the confusion but I didn't like the way the original chapter was written.

* * *

 **Next day**

Looking around the cafeteria, Naruto debated about where she could sit. It was only the second day but it felt like everyone had their groups, well everyone but Bakugou and Todoroki. In one corner, she could see Izuku sitting with Uraraka and Iida but Naruto didn't feel comfortable sitting with them. Yaoyorozu was sitting with Jiro while Ashido sat with Asui. Kirishima was sitting with Kaminari and that perverted grape boy.

There was no doubt in her mind that Kirishima would have no problem letting her sit with them, but Naruto understood her classmate's type. He was the type of kid that made you want to be friends with, and the blonde didn't want to open. It was already bad enough that Isuka didn't mind her coldness, but if she became friends with another person then she was afraid of herself.

Shaking her head, Naruto flickered her eyes towards Todoroki, who seemed to be sitting by himself in the corner. Would it be a good idea to take a seat beside him? He didn't seem like the type to ask questions, which was what she wanted. She did not know him, which made it easier for her. Nothing in the world would make her want to sit beside Bakugou, since he had always acted like an asshole. If there was one type of a person that she didn't like, it was a bully.

It was with that decision, she made her way to take a seat beside Todoroki.

"It isn't a problem if I take a seat here?" Naruto asked, taking a seat in front of her classmate. The bicoloured-haired boy looked away from his soba noodles and raised his eyebrow at her. It might be too late for her to ask but Naruto needed a place to sit. A place to sit with someone, who probably wouldn't ask her questions about the past. He didn't seem to be the type to care about anyone.

She stirred her noodles before flickering her eyes to her classmate, who kept tilting his head and staring at her. There was something unnerving about his eyes, maybe it was the coldness or maybe it was the fact that there was a curiosity in his eyes. She mentally shook her head and kept her eyes fixed on the noodles. There was no need for her to talk to him or even snap at him. If she snapped at him then it might lead to conversations and she didn't want to make a conversation with a guy that might be an asshole.

"Why did you ask to sit beside me if you already made your decision?"

Naruto looked away from her noodles and stared at her classmate's mismatched eyes. There was no fury in his words, if anything her classmate had asked that question with detachment, which seemed weird if you asked her. She thought only Sasuke's brother can present himself cold but her classmate showed no problem that he could act as cold as his quirk.

"I thought it would be nicer to pretend that I'm polite and that there is an actual possibility that someone is going to sit with you," she said, taking a huge bite of her ramen. Todoroki gave her a blank look but the blonde could see that his lips were almost twitching at her comment. It was hard to tell if he was holding back a scowl or if he was tempted to laugh at her words, but knowing her luck, it probably was the first.

"What do you mean an actual possibility of someone sitting beside me? You think no one wants to sit beside me?" Todoroki asked, taking a bite of his soba.

The blonde looked at the swirling noodles before looking back at her blank classmate. What could she say? Could she say that he seemed intimating to some of the kids? Could she tell him about how his eyes lacked any warmth? It wasn't any of her business to tell him. Things always seemed to go wrong when she made a small comment to someone and there was no way she was going to take a chance with this guy.

She wanted some form of a peace.

"You are going to keep quiet about it?" He probed.

Naruto put down her chopsticks and pointed to the student's around them. "Do you know the difference between you and the other students? Their eyes are warm and inviting, telling people that they don't mind if you want to get to know them but your eyes tell people that you don't want that. You barely talk to anyone in the classroom, only when it was necessary while everyone else tried to make friends with each other."

"The same could be said for you," Todoroki stated as she slurped on her noodles. "You barely interacted with anyone in the class except for those three boys, yesterday."

It was different for her, Naruto wanted to tell him. She couldn't let anyone get close to her. She didn't want to become friends with someone, only for them to betray her. It wasn't like she used to be like this. When she had been a little girl, all she ever did was try to interact with the other kids. She made pranks just so she had their attention. She challenged Sasuke because she thought if she beat him then people would want to be her friend.

She tried so hard when it came to making friends that all her efforts were for nothing.

"It is hard for me to interact with people," she looked at the smiling students and clenched her hands into a small fist as memories of her ex-shinobi days flooded into her mind. "I didn't come here to make friends. I came here to become the best hero that I can be."

She wasn't going to let anyone in her life. She wasn't going to fall into the delusion that kids would accept the person that she was. She wasn't going to think that the people were going to put her first. There was only one person, who seemed to give a shit about her, and she turned down his offer. She turned it down all because she couldn't find it in herself to stay in that part of the world.

Why go back to a world that didn't give a shit about her? A world that seemed ready to cage her for something that wasn't completely her fault.

* * *

Naruto could only stare at her storybook while her classmates whispered excitedly about All Might teaching them. She didn't know what was the excitement about the number one hero teaching them. He was a great hero that was something she could never deny but experience taught her that being good in the job didn't always mean being a good teacher. She wasn't going to expect the man to be a great teacher but there was a small chance that he would be a great one.

"You know Uzumaki, we never heard your thought about All Might teaching us. Everyone in the class had given their opinion, even Todoroki and Bakugou but we hadn't heard what you think." One of her classmate said, drawing everyone's attention to her. Naruto closed her book and stared at her fellow blonde, who had a large smile on his face.

Her thought? Did it even matter? No one wanted to know what she thought. In Konoha, people thought that she was just too slow to understand anything. People thought that just because she played pranks and didn't try in school, that it meant she was a terrible student. Why did her classmates want to know? She nibbled her lips before looking at Todoroki and Bakugou, both of whom were now quiet.

"I don't really give a shit," Naruto leaned against her chair and stared up at the sky. "All Might is an amazing hero but it doesn't mean he is going to be an amazing teacher."

The black-haired girl, beside her, frowned. "Why not? He has a lot of experience when it comes to being a hero, don't you think it might translate well when it comes to teaching?"

Naruto snorted at her classmate's comment before looking out at the window. Wasn't Kakashi an amazing ninja? Wasn't Jiraya an amazing ninja? Jiraya had barely taught her anything while Kakashi only seemed focused on teamwork and Sasuke. Neither of them have tried to help her when it came to being a better ninja. Hell, her teacher had even ignored the fact that Sakura had sometimes skipped breakfast because she was on a diet. What type of teacher does that? What type of person ignore these kinds of things?

She mentally shook her head at her thought. "Sometimes a person can be amazing at their job but when it comes to teaching their job to others then that is when they suck."

Her classmates blinked their eyes at her words but the blond-haired girl couldn't bring herself to apologize. She was too tired of expecting people to be good teachers immediately. She had seen enough teachers to know that not everyone could teach. She might be too harsh when it came to telling them about her thoughts, but someone needs to wake them up. Someone had to speak the truth and she would be that girl.

"U.A High wouldn't hire someone that can't teach," Iida pointed out. "They are supposed to be making us the best heroes that we can be and learning from the number one hero would give us this opportunity."

The blonde raised her eyebrow at her classmate but made no attempt to contradict him. There might be some truth in his words but life taught her differently. Life taught her that nothing ever went the way you thought it would. People weren't like what you expected, they could be cold and cruel or they could be more understanding then you gave them credit. People could be good at their job but be bad at teaching their job.

"Are you ok, Uzumaki?"

Naruto twisted her head around and blinked her eyes at Todoroki, who had a small frown on his face. Was it obvious that she was feeling bitter? Unlike everyone else here, she had a good control of her emotions. Well, she didn't have much emotions really but she was good at making it seem like she had none. It became hard for her to put a fake smile but putting a blank expression was becoming a second nature for her.

"I'm fine."

Todoroki raised his eyebrow but made no comment. He didn't need to say anything because Naruto could see from his eyes that he didn't believe a word that she said. He was wrong to think like that. She was fine. She had been fine, the moment she came to this part of the world. She had been fine since Sasuke made it clear that he thought so little of her. She had been fine the moment the council debated about what to do with her.

She was perfectly fine.

"I have come through the door like a normal person!"

Naruto let out a sigh of relief when most of her classmates had turned their attention to the smiling All Might. Only one person seemed to have his eyes fixed on her but she wasn't going to let Todoroki know that his question affected her. She was going to stare at their strange teacher and not show that she was fazed by his weird question.

"The hero basic training is the class that will put all of you through all kind of training in order to make all of you heroes," All Might informed them, pulling something out of his cape. "I would go into further detail but there is no time for me to explain. Instead, I'm going to jump into the first activity, which is battle training!"

He was going to train them on how to fight? Naruto asked herself as her classmates whispered to each other in excitement. Shouldn't they make them experience it? In Konoha, they were paired up and told to fight each other. They were taught some kata but then they fought each other. In fact when she became a genin, Kakashi didn't even taught her any special jutsu or anything. He made them go through that chuunin exam without any knowledge.

It was almost like he wanted to kill them.

"Of course for your battle training, you will need your costumes," All Might declared, clicking a button on the wall to reveal a row of selves filled with their seat number. "The costumes were made according to both your quirk registry and the special request forms that you filled out before being admitted to the school."

Her classmates cheered at his words but Naruto could only stare blankly at her case number. When they had given her the form to fill, she hadn't really thought of what limit that she wanted them to overcome. She had more chakra than most people in the Elemental Countries, which meant that she didn't really have it a weakness. The Kyuubi was only a problem when she lost control of her emotions or that was what she figured out after her fight with Sasuke.

She could not allow herself to lose control of the demon inside of her.

* * *

Todoroki knew from the moment Uzumaki began talking to him that she was different from all the other kids that he observed and interacted with. While everyone else had no problem with answering his questions, his classmate always seemed to hesitate before answering his question. Some people would say it would be because she was thoughtful but he had seen the emotions in her eyes. It might be small but he saw the fear in her eyes. The same fear that his mother used to have whenever she thought of talking back to his father.

It was from there that he noticed small patterns about his classmate that no one seemed to pick on. If everyone in the class interacted with each other, Uzumaki would avoid any interactions. She would answer questions and elaborate them, but she would never tell someone that she thought they were wrong. He noticed the blond-haired girl wanted to tell Iida that he was wrong but something stopped her. He didn't know what it was but he knew his classmate had issues.

Should he ask the girl about her issues?

"If you dare look at my ass or boobs again, I will make sure that you will never be able to have kids again," Uzumaki snarled, snapping him out of his train of thought. Todoroki blinked his eyes when he saw that the blond-haired girl had pulled the purple-haired boy from the cape, a scowl playing on her lips. "Actually let me explain myself better, if I see you look at any girl's ass or boobs then I will tear your balls away from your body and feed It to the dogs."

Todoroki tilted his head and stared at the girl's costume while most of the boys gulped at the girl's threat. There wasn't anything inappropriate about the girl's costume. It looked almost normal. She was just wearing a sleeveless orange kimono-style blouse, which seemed to be hugging her chest a little bit too tightly, and a pair of dark pants. She even had a pair of black high-heeled boots, although the blond-haired girl still seemed to look petite.

"It's time for battle training!" All Might said, drawing everyone's attention to him. Todoroki didn't miss the way their teacher's eyes lingered on Uzumaki, who had already knocked out the short boy. He wondered if the man was going to ask Uzumaki about the reason for knocking the boy out, or if he heard the girl's threat.

"This appears to be the same field used in the entrance exam," Iida commented. "Are we going to perform cityscape maneuvers?"

All Might shook his head. "We're moving onto step two: indoor anti-personnel battle training!"

Todoroki nodded and glanced at his potential opponents. Everyone was strong in their own way but only Uzumaki seemed to be a problem for them. The girl was the fastest kid in their class and could lift weights as large as 600 kg without breaking a sweat. Her quirk allowed her to do so many things but he couldn't figure out what could be her backlash. At first, he thought her quirk was similar to All Might but there was something odd about her quirk.

It almost reminded him of another hero but he couldn't remember his name.

"You mostly see villain battles happening outdoors but if we are talking statics, the most heinous villains are more likely to conduct crimes indoors," All Might rubbed his chin. "The cleverest villains lurk indoors and they would be doing their work despite being confined and being under house arrest. They would do black market deals and be the masterminds behind the most heinous crimes."

Todoroki didn't miss the way Uzumaki stiffened at the mention of black market or how her eyes seemed to lit up with worry before being masked away. He shouldn't care. He wasn't here to make friends but there was no denying that his classmate was hiding something. There was no denying that his classmate understood all too well what the number one hero was talking about, but how did she know it.

"I'm going to be splitting all of you into villain teams and hero teams," All Might said. "You will be facing off in two-on-two indoor battles!"

Tsuyu frowned. "So no basic training?"

"The best way to learn is through experience," Uzumaki answered before All Might could reply to their classmate's question. The blond-haired girl stared at her hands and then to their classmate. "It is one thing to learn in class and it is another thing when it comes to experience. You might do well in a class but when it comes to actually fighting someone, you will freeze and someone needs to come save you."

There was a trace of bitterness and anger in the girl's voice. A bitterness that only someone, who had experienced this, could feel and he wonder where his classmate had experience this. From what he observed, Uzumaki had went to the same middle school as Midoriya and Bakugou. However, he also knew things weren't what it seemed. He knew because some people thought that his father was a good hero, but only his family members knew better.

"Now let me explain to you about the exercise," All Might said. "The villains will be hiding a nuclear weapon in a hideout and the heroes will have to go in and take care of it."

"Do we pick our teammates or are you going to assign them to us?" Uzumaki interrupted.

All Might pulled out a hat from his cape. "I was getting there but to answer your question, teammates are determined by drawing lots."

Uzumaki frowned but didn't protest against the man's words. Instead, she flickered her vacant eyes at the people around them before nodding her head. He didn't miss the way her eyes seemed to harden when it landed on Bakugou or how her eyes shone with worry when it came to Midoriya. As cold as she displayed herself to be, there was no denying that she did care in her own way.

Uzumaki wasn't completely heartless.

* * *

Of all the people that she had to be paired with, she had to be paired with the one that doesn't know how to work in a team. Naruto might have luck when it came to gambling but when it came to teammates, she had the worse luck. She could have Kirishima, Todoroki and hell even that pervert would be better than Bakugou. At least, she could team with them and talk reasonably with them but Bakugou was a whole different ball game.

He never liked listening to people giving them their opinions.

"Don't get in my way, Whiskers."

Naruto stared at the blond-haired boy and then to Izuku, who seemed to be busy talking to the brown-haired girl. They were going to go against them in fifteen minutes and her classmate had no intention of pretending that they would discuss about this. He expected her to just let him do what he wanted but she couldn't do that. She couldn't let the two of them fight without making sure that he didn't send Izuku to the hospital.

"Bakugou, when have I ever gave a crap about what you want?" He growled at her but the blond-haired girl narrowed her eyes at him. "Whether you like it or not, we need to work as a team and that means we are going to do this together."

Now it was Bakugou's turn to narrow his eyes at her but the blond-haired girl couldn't bring herself to pretend to be scared of him. She couldn't bring herself to pretend that she gave a shit about what he wanted to do. It might be her bad luck for her to be paired with him but it was Izuku's good luck. If her classmate had been paired with anyone else, they would have no idea on how to make the damage smaller but she knew his type.

"And what makes you think I'm going to listen to an emotionless bitch like you."

Emotionless bitch? She felt her lips twitched at his words. There had been a lot of words to describe her but this was the first time somone called her an emotionless bitch. She used to call herself the head bitch in charge. She had been called a mini-Tsunade because of her temper and strength. She had been called ugly and fat, but no one ever called her an emotionless bitch. It should bring her anger but all she could feel were hints of what must be amusement.

She forgot what amusement felt like.

"Because this emotionless bitch knows that while you have a shitty personality, that you are stronger than some of the kids here," She said, grabbing hold of her classmate. A part of her knew that she should try to stroke his ego to make him listen but she was no Sakura or Ino. She was Naruto Uzumaki and she was no liar. "But you have to admit that you need some improvement."

"I'm going to murder you."

"I would like to see you try," she said dryly. "Look if I let you fight Izuku by yourself then you will be facing some issue since he has always been analysing your quirk and because you are underestimating him. Now you need me to make sure that you don't let your pride ruin the chance for a good and fair fight. I won't interfere unless I think you are going to take it too far."

He opened his mouth to argue but the blond-haired girl only tightened her grip on him before placing her hand on his mouth. They could complain about her but Naruto wasn't an idiot. If she let him go then there was no telling what he would do. If she let him talk then there would be stuck here tomorrow. She would rather go to her part-time job without explaining to her boss about why she didn't come in today.

"Look if it makes you feel better than I need you in order to win this stupid battle," she said. "Izuku will probably be more focus on you than on me, which means I can capture Ochako without a problem. However, the only way we can win is if you try to be a better person than before. I don't have much trust when it comes to anyone but I'm going to trust you when it comes to Izuku. I'm going to trust that you won't go overboard and harm the one person that seems to give a shit about you."

Bakugou stopped struggling and the blond-haired girl stared blankly at him.

"You can rip him apart but I don't want you to forget that while all those heroes were too fucking scared to save you, that Izuku ran to save your sorry ass even though you told him to go kill himself," she hissed. "I don't give a shit that you say your friendship with him is over, but just remember that you would have been dead if it weren't for him. I want you to remember that despite every shitty thing you did to him, he was willing to sacrifice his life for you because you were his friend. Not everyone would do that…a person would only do that if they think that person was worth it, or if their bond was strong."

Bakugou squinted his eyes at her but Naruto just let go and turned her body around. She shouldn't tell him these things but it pissed her off that he took Izuku for granted. It made her angry that he had no idea on how important he was to Izuku. She had been walking back home when she heard the exchange between them. She knew Izuku claimed that his legs moved on their own, but Naruto thought different.

Izuku will do anything for Bakugou, just like she would have done anything for Sasuke if it meant that he stayed in the village with their team.

She might have lost her team and she didn't know what she was going to do about Sasuke, but right now Naruto would be damned if she allowed Bakugou to take his bond with Izuku for granted. She would be damned if she allowed Izuku to go through that heartache.

* * *

Q&A

 **Q: Is this Naruto cannon?**

A: Yes, in terms of abilities but her backstory is a bit different when compared to Naruto in cannon.

 **Q: Did Naruto choose to leave the village willingly?**

A: It is hinted that she choose to leave the village willingly but the reason for it, would be explain in the later chapters.

 **Q: Who is this he that is mentioned?**

A: It is one of the Naruto's character that knew that Naruto was leaving but who it is will be revealed later.

Q: **Q: What kind of relationship will Aizawa have with Naruto?**

A: Naruto and Aizawa will have a parental relationship.

 **Q: Which student did Naruto replace in a-1 or are there 21 students in class?**

A: There are twenty-one students in the class.

* * *

 **A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter especially the characterisation of the characters. Please tell me if there is anything that can be improved or if you have any questions about the characters. Also, who do you think that Naruto should be paired with and why? I haven't completely decided on the pairing so I want to hear your thoughts, before making the final decision.**


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: I am sorry for not updating earlier but I have been extremely busy for the last couple of months with university.

* * *

Whiskers was a pain in the ass.

Bakugou had long decided that his classmate was annoying, the moment she defended Deku from him. The blond haired girl only seemed to open her mouth whenever he talked to Deku. Instead of being quiet like she usually was, his fellow blonde would give him a frosty look before defending the younger boy. She couldn't just ignore Deku and let him do as he pleased. Most of the time, it felt like Whiskers didn't think he was anything special which was annoying, because his quirk was better than anyone else in their middle school.

However, he couldn't deny that Whiskers was smart. The girl had always been in the top five when they were in middle school, despite having job in a café. Everyone in school had been impressed with their classmate for having accomplished it and even he could, gurglingly admit that Whiskers was a hard worker. It wasn't easy to get good grades when one had to work.

"Since I'm going to have be with you so that you don't have to do anything stupid, we will need to make a trap to stop Midoriya's partner from taking the weapon," Whiskers commented, staring at the nuclear weapon before scanning the room. "If I were Midoriya, I would tell my partner to go after the weapon while I attack the asshole, who doesn't know how to work in a team."

He opened his mouth to argue with her, but the words died down when Whiskers turned those emotionless eyes to him. If there was one thing that made Whiskers weird, it was the fact that her eyes never seemed to hold any emotions. In the three years he had known her, not once had those cold eyes ever glinted with emotions. Maybe anger and annoyance but even then, it was rare.

"Why the hell do you keep mentioning that?" He finally snapped, once he regained his senses. "I agreed to listen to whatever plan that you cooked up, didn't I? For someone who claimed we needed to work together, you have a shitty way of making me believe that you actually need my help."

The girl inhaled and turned her head to the weapon that stood in front of them. "Sorry for not trying to kiss your ass and tell you that you are a good team player, but I know that if I haven't pointed out that Midoriya knew your quirk then you wouldn't have agreed to work together. Instead, you would have attacked the guy, since you are furious for some shitty reason."

"Shitty reason? The bastard never told me that he had a quirk! He had been lying to me for years now!" He snarled. "I have known him since we were little kids and not once had he ever stated that he gained a quirk! You don't just gain a quirk!"

"Well considering the fact that you abandoned him, I don't blame him for hiding it from you since…" Whiskers knitted her eyebrows and then stared at him thoughtfully. "Y'know, you have a point. If he had a quirk for years then why hadn't he ever mentioned that he gained one? It would have stopped everyone from bullying him. He is also a Hero Otaku, so it makes no sense for him to hide it. It also makes no sense for him to suddenly gain a quirk."

"Yeah because he is quirkless!"

"Something isn't adding up," Whiskers frowned. "Aizawa-sensei stated that he had erased his quirk, which makes sense since he didn't throw the ball far the first time. The second time, he threw the ball but he damaged his fingers. I don't know much about quirks but it is a backlash, isn't it?"

"Whiskers, what are you getting at?"

"No, this isn't the time for us to think about the mystery of Midoriya's quirk," the blonde shook her head. "It isn't going to be much help since Midoriya would be too reckless to think of using it. However if I were to think like Midoriya then I would be using your bullying experience to fight you…"

"What the hell does that have to do with Midoriya?"

The whiskered-girl raised her eyebrow before staring out at the window. "Midoriya isn't the type to miss small details, in fact, anyone that had been physically abused or bullied would know which hand would be raised when someone become angry. In fact, I noticed that whenever you want to beat him up that you would use your right fist against him. He would be expecting you to punch him with your right fist, since he would have instincts when it comes to you."

"Do you realize how fucking annoying you are?"

"You want me to keep my mouth shut and wait for you to realize that you were an idiot to underestimate his brains?" He growled and Whiskers waved her hand. "You are an idiot if you think you need brawns when it comes to fights. Sometimes, it is the cunning people that win a fight and not the strongest guy."

"I'm going to kill you."

She raised her eyebrows. "You can kill me once we defeat Midoriya and his partner, but until then you are stuck with me as your partner and as your partner, I'm not going to pretend that everything that you do is amazing. My job is to make sure that we work together as a team, which means that it requires you to swallow your pride and accept my criticism, in order for you to improve your performance."

"You know I would think you would want Deku to win."

Whiskers pinched her nose. "Don't tempt me but I don't like to lose, which is a good thing for you but a terrible thing for Midoriya."

"If you get in my way then I will kill you."

"If you let your temper get the better of you then I will end you," she retorted. "So let us get this show on the road, because we only have five minutes to prepare everything."

Perhaps being paired up with Whiskers wasn't the worse thing but he would rather die than admit it to her.

* * *

Toshinori looked down at the file in his hand before glancing at the screen, where he could see young Uzumaki and Bakugou making their way towards where Izuku and his partner were. There was something oddly familiar about the girl's name, but he couldn't remember what was familiar about her. Did he know anyone with the name Uzumaki? Although, Uzumaki was quite a common last name when he thought about it. There had been plenty of people with that last name, but the ones that he met had red-hair.

Although there was that hero, but it would have been known if he had a family member. The media would never let something like this kept quiet. If the girl had been related to a hero then it would have been known by the media. It probably didn't help that her files had stated clearly that she was an orphan. It was the main reason that she had requested to have a part-time job as she wanted to make some money to pay for her schooling.

"Don't you think it is a stupid for the both of them to leave the weapon unguarded?" Kaminari asked, tilting his head. "They can't be that confident that they can win against them."

"I don't know what Bakugou is like when he fights but I have seen Uzumaki in the exam," Sero looked at the poker-faced girl in the screen. "She was able to beat most of the robots without breaking a sweat, and not only that but she was helping an injured person in the exam."

"No matter how good she is, we still have no idea if it translates well in a situation like this," Momo pointed out. "We haven't known each other long enough for her to make plans on how to defeat them. They don't know the full extent of their quirks; it is quite reckless for them to leave the weapon alone."

"But Midoriya, Bakugou and Uzumaki went to the same Middle School," Iida reminded them. "They must have encountered each other's quirks, which means that they aren't going in there with no knowledge of their abilities."

Toshinori could understand all the points that students made and to a certain extent he agreed with their thoughts on the actions of Bakugou and Uzumaki. However, he also knew that his students had missed certain details about the room. None of them had noticed that the room had its object removed, nor had they noticed that Uzumaki had drawn several characters around the weapon.

He didn't know what the characters were supposed to represent but it was intriguing to see what the girl's quirk could do.

"Everyone watch closely and try to learn something from this match," the students nodded their head and looked at the screen, where Midoriya and his partner had climbed through the window. Toshinori glanced at the screen, where Bakugou was charging through the corridor. Where was Uzumaki? He flickered his eyes through the screens and frowned at the lack of partner. Where would the girl go? He frowned when he saw a shadow on the floor.

Was it possible that the girl was on the ceiling?

He scanned through the girl's file and rubbed his chin when he saw that the girl had filled in her quirk as energy manipulation. There weren't many details about her quirk but, the facts that the girl had written about her quirk were very similar to another person. He thinned his lips and stared at the girl's photo carefully, noticing for the first time that the girl's appearance reminded him of the little boy, who went missing thirty years ago.

The little boy that was never found.

"That's low, Bakugou!" Kirishima yelled, snapping him out of his thoughts. "Sneak attacks are so unmanly!"

"Sneak attacks may be a dirty technique but it is still a valid strategy," he informed the boy, staring at the furious young man in the screen. He felt his shoulders tensed when he saw that young Midoriya had half of his mask destroyed. It was good that the boy had managed to dodge the attack. A couple of months ago, it would have been impossible for the young boy to do something but it showed that the training had paid off.

"Wait a second, isn't that Uzumaki?" Another student yelled, pointing to the screen, where Uzumaki stood on the side of the wall with a blank look on her face. "How the hell is she able to stand on the walls? I thought her quirk only allowed her to enhance her abilities."

"Really? I thought Uzumaki's quirk also allowed her to make clones," Sero said, drawing everyone's attention on him. The young boy rubbed the back of his neck, looking visibly uncomfortable with the attention that he wad receiving from everyone. Taking a deep breath, the boy explained himself. "I was in the same block as Uzumaki when she was doing the exam and she was able to send one of the participants to the nurse and finish the exam by using her clones."

"Uzumaki can make clones?" Mineta drooled. "There can be three copies of that body!"

Toshinori didn't try to reprimand Tsuyu when she slapped the boy in the head. He may have been a teenage boy once, but it was still disgusting to hear a boy talked about a girl like she was a meal. Shaking his head, Toshinori watched as Bakugou charged after the boy, swinging his right fist. Midoriya must have expected this, because he was already reaching his hand out…but in the last minute, Bakugou switched hands.

It seemed like Bakugou's pride wasn't as big as everyone claimed it was, Toshinori mused, as the boy slammed his left fist against Midoriya's face. Toshinori glanced at Uzumaki, who had a strange, far away look in her eyes. No, the look in her eyes wasn't all that strange. It was a look that only someone, who had traumatic experience could have. It was a look that soldiers would have and it made him wonder if the girl had been dealt with a bad hand.

The school would need to consider looking into Uzumaki's past.

"It seems like Uzumaki also fights dirty," Kaminari said, pointing to the screen, where Uzumaki tackled Ochako. "She attacked Ochako when she was too busy watching Midoriya and Bakugou fight."

"It is her fault for not paying to her surroundings," Iida argued. "And while it is wrong for Uzumaki to attack in that way, she is playing the role of the villain and a villain will take this opportunity to attack the hero. However, I can see why she wouldn't pay attention because no one would think that two villains would leave a weapon unattended."

With his partner captured, All Might couldn't help but wonder what his student was going to do to win the match.

* * *

When Naruto went to middle school for the first time, she had no plans of getting involved with everyone. She had only planned to finish middle school, get a part-time job and live her life in peace. She didn't want to build any bonds because people were always going to betray her. Sasuke betrayed her when he decided to kill her and Sakura betrayed her when she blamed her for the fact that she couldn't bring him back.

Midoriya Izuku was the boy that always made it hard for her to forget the promise she made to herself. He was the boy who got bullied because of his lack of quirk. He was the boy that was being bullied by the one person that he looked up to, and Naruto couldn't help but protect him. He reminded her of the old Naruto in that way, and maybe that was why she couldn't ignore him.

It was for this reason that she tied Ochako up and taped her mouth, because Naruto didn't want anyone to ruin this fight.

She wanted to see how strong Midoriya had become in the past year, and the reason for his growth. She wanted to see if there was an explanation for how strong he became, because what Bakugou had said to her made sense. Until a year ago, their classmate had no quirk. He was a weak little boy that dreamt big, and now he was no longer that boy. He was a boy with a strong quirk, which made no sense.

Naruto watched as the two boys threw punches that could seriously injured them. Half of her classmate's mask was destroyed, revealing his curls and the rest of his costume was shredded and scuffed from Bakugou's explosions. There were several scratches on her classmate's cheeks and it was clear that both of the boys were dripping with sweat. She could see that the two of them were exhausted but this wasn't the time for her to do her thing.

Despite their injuries, neither of them seemed ready to give up. Yes, Midoriya was injured and Bakugou was slowly becoming tired from the fight. Although, Naruto wondered if he was tired from having his beliefs being torn apart or if he was mentally exhausted. His crimson eyes were becoming more and more chaotic, and Naruto wondered if maybe it was a bad idea to let them continue this.

Memories of her battle with Sasuke flooded in her mind but Naruto pushed it back, not willing to let her past take control of her again.

This was not the time to have a breakdown.

"That's enough, Bakugou!"

Her partner twitched and Naruto felt her breath hitched when he turned his eyes to look at her. It wasn't the craziness in his eyes that worried her, it was the fact that he had that depraved smirk on his face. The smirk that he always made when she demanded for him to stop bullying Midoriya. The smirk that said he didn't give a fuck about what she said. It was the smirk that she haded the most.

"Fuck you, Whiskers."

"You really shouldn't have said that, Bakugou," she whispered, taking out the second capture tape. Bakugou blinked his eyes and slipped his hands into his pocket, before turning an accusing eye at her. Did he really believe that she would have allowed him to do what he want? She was a lot of things but she wasn't an idiot. When they were making their way to the floor, she had managed to slip her hand through his pockets and grabbed the tape.

She would never make the same mistake again.

"Don't you dare, Whiskers!"

"Fuck you, Bakugou!" Naruto snarled, ducking Bakugou's punch, before grabbing hold of frozen Izuku. She sighed and tied Midoriya up, before flickering her eyes at her furious classmate. She should have allowed them to continue the fight, but at this rate, they were going to get hurt. There was no chance in hell that she was going to endanger people, just because Bakugou had an ego. She wasn't going to let Midoriya be Bakugou's punching bag when he was at this state.

"I told you not to get in my way."

She twisted her head and glared at the furious boy. "Since when the hell did I ever listen to you? I told you that I will interfere if I thought that you were taking things too far, and you hurting Midoriya when he was badly injured was it. Why the hell do you want to become a hero? Heroes don't hurt people when they are down. Heroes are supposed to be understanding, not be some asshole who can't handle the fact that his classmate had a quirk."

"You don't…"

"I don't know a thing, that is what you are going to say, right?" Bakugou froze and the blond-haired girl forced herself to smile at him. "Do you know how many times I have to hear that? Do you know how many times I was forced to be a punching bag because the asshole, who I called my best friend, couldn't accept the fact that I was catching up to him. What you were doing to him reminded me of that asshole…and I don't want Midoriya to end up like me. So call me a bitch, tell me that I don't understand a thing but understand that I'm an emotionless bitch because of people like you."

She turned away from everyone and walked off, ignoring All Might as he declared that they won.

They may have won the match but Naruto didn't like the fact that she hadn't been able to get Bakugou to see the reality of everything.

* * *

She should have gone back to class but Naruto didn't have the energy to deal with everyone. She just wanted some time to herself, wanted to come to grips with everything before going to her classroom. How long must this haunt her? How long must the asshole hurt her? She shouldn't be a hero. She shouldn't have joined the school when her mentality was like this, but the thought of disappointing her teacher had been too much for her. She looked at the mirror, stared at her disgusting whisker marks and then to her hands.

"What the hell was I thinking?" she couldn't help but ask herself. "Heroes should be able to save everyone and keep their promises. Heroes are supposed to be brave but I'm the coward that run away from home, because she didn't want to face punishment. I couldn't even stop that idiot Bakugou from going too far. I can't even stop my friends from getting hurt."

Midoriya's scratched face flooded into her mind along with the friends that she couldn't protect. Midoriya getting badly hurt was on her shoulders because she didn't make Bakugou guard the weapon. Hinata had gotten hurt because she encouraged her to fight Neji, even though it was clear to everyone that he wanted to murder her. Hell even Sasuke's hickey was her fault. If she hadn't taunted him then none of this would have happened. She should have avoided people, and continue things like she originally planned.

" _ **You are an idiot if you think that you were meant to live a boring life."**_

Why the hell was that fox talking to her? It was his fault that she came here. It was his fault that she lost control during the match with Sasuke. If he hadn't taken advantage of her emotional state then none of this would have happened. If it weren't for him then she could continue pretending that everyone would have accepted her. She clenched her hands into a fist and stared at the mirror, wishing not for the first time that the Hokage had given this demon to someone else.

Why her? Why did he pick the child that had no one who could protect her? He could have chosen someone, who had parents that could love them. Why the orphan girl? What the hell did she do wrong for him to pick her? She slapped her cheeks and shook her head. She shouldn't wish this burden on someone else. It was wrong too, but sometimes she just wondered what the hell did she do wrong for the man to pick her.

Splashing some water on her face, Naruto went out of the bathroom and made her way back to the classroom. She took several deep breaths, forcing down the tornado of emotions that were ready to consumed her. There was no time for her to let the past consume her. She had a future that she needed to focus on…a future that she wanted to prove her teacher right.

"Are you alright, Uzumaki?"

Naruto blinked her eyes and stared at her teacher, who looked at her with eyes shining with concern. Why were teachers in this part of the world more caring? When had a teacher, in Konoha, asked her if she was fine? Iruka-sensei had cared for her but he had ignored her silent cries of help. Kakashi-sensei had never noticed the fact that she had problems. Perhaps, the only other person that cared for her had been Jiraya.

She shouldn't think of the perverted Sannin.

"I'm fine, All Might-sensei," Naruto lied but she could tell from her teacher's eyes that he didn't believe the bullshit that was coming out of her mouth. In all honesty, she also didn't believe a word that she was saying. Her teacher nodded and the blond-haired girl took her place, next to Todoroki, who had a strange look in his eyes as he stared at her. She glanced at Bakugou, who had a scowl on his face, and then scanned the room for Midoriya.

There was no sign of Midoriya.

"Midoriya went to the nurse," Todoroki said, drawing her attention to him. She blinked her eyes and opened her mouth to question him but the boy shook his head. "It is clear that you are worried about him."

"Thank you for telling me, this," Naruto said, turning her head to the screen. "Who is next?"

"All Might-sensei hadn't announced it yet," Todoroki replied. He frowned and looked at her carefully, eyes lingering at her own blue eyes and the blonde wondered if there was something that she was supposed to know. He shook his head before changing the subject. "You did well in the stimulation, but I didn't realise that your quirk allowed you to stick to walls. I thought your quirk only allows you to enhance your abilities."

Naruto shrugged her shoulders. "My quirk allows me to do many things and enhancing my physical abilities is just one of them…I didn't really have a chance to use it, when we were doing Aizawa-sensei's test."

"You were foolish to leave the weapon unattended," Todoroki commented, fixing his cold eyes on her. The blond-haired girl blinked and felt her lips twitched at his words. To everyone, it might have seem like she left the weapon unattended but she had left some of her clones in the room. It had been her back up plan to let the clones ambush Ochako, if she hadn't been able to contained the girl or if Midoriya had split up from her partner.

Of course, she would never tell anyone about her plan.

"I couldn't exactly leave Bakugou by himself," Naruto looked up at the ceiling. "If I had left him to deal with Midoriya by himself then we would have situation, where everyone would have gotten hurt. It also doesn't help that I wanted to make sure that Midoriya didn't get badly hurt since Bakugou wanted to beat the guy up."

"The circumstance does make it difficult," Todoroki agreed. "But I never realized that Bakugou was subtler than he portrayed himself."

Naruto felt her lips twitched at her classmate's comment. "He might be a raging asshole, but I won't deny that he shines in battle or that he is smart."

She looked at the blond-haired boy, who stood in the corner with his head dipped low enough to cover his eyes. Naruto thinned her lips and turned her head away. It was clear that he wasn't happy with the way she interfered or the way they won, but she would rather that those two had their fight when she was certain that Midoriya wasn't going to get his ass handed to him. It must be frustrating for him that their fight had been interrupted, but if he was anything like her or Sasuke then he would find a way to finish his fight with Midoriya.

"Since everyone is back in the room then it is time for me to announce the next battle," All Might declared, his laughter snapping her out of her thoughts. "With that said, the next battle is between Shoji Mezo and Todoroki Shouto from Team B versus Ojiro Mashirao and Hagakure Toru from Team I, please proceed to the next location!"

Naruto stared at Todoroki and the boy stared back at her. It was startling to see how his eyes rang with boredom and how he could have two different eye colour. For a brief second, she contemplated to ask him if there was a reason that he was surpressing his emotions but thought better of it. Asking him about his repression would open up to him asking her why she lacked emotions, and Naruto wasn't ready to reach that stage.

It was still one step of a time for her.

"I will see you soon, Todoroki-san," Naruto said, looking away from his eyes.

Todoroki nodded but the blond-haired girl didn't miss the way that his lips twitched upwards. For a brief second, she recalled of the time when she called Itachi, Sasuke's brother and not his name. His lips had also twitched in that way, before he called her the girl that frustrated his brother. She remembered how she blushed at his words, and remembered that she thought he was cute. Now that she thought about it, Itachi had never treated her like a monster. He always treated her with patience and kindness, which was quite the opposite of Sasuke.

He had been gentle and the blonde wondered how he could kill his family, if he could act so gentle and loving to his brother.

Something wasn't adding up.

* * *

"Mind telling me what is bothering you, kiddo?"

Naruto looked away from the plates and stared at her boss, who had her arms folded against her chest as she gave her a thoughtful look. For a moment, she debated about lying to the woman but she spent most of her time, lying about things. Yet if she talked to her about Sasuke's past then the woman would look at her as if she was crazy. No one would ever believe a fourteen-year-old boy would murder his whole clan, but there was something about the past that wasn't making sense. This would have never bothered her, if she hadn't realized that Todoroki reminded her of Itachi.

"I was reading a story book, where the main character's best friend started talking about his past," Naruto lied, putting down the plates and turning her body to look at her boss. "The best friend said that his brother murdered his whole family because he wanted power and that he left him alive, so that he could test himself against him. I don't really understand that bit, because the main character remembered the brother as being someone kind and gentle. Someone, who loved his family and so it makes no sense for this character to end up that way."

"What kind of fucked up book, are you reading?" Naruto laughed nervously, but her boss shook her head. "Sorry but who would make a child murder their whole family? I know it makes for a good plot but the character would be so fucked up." She sighed. "Then again, there is a lot of fuck up things in this world…but to answer your question, I would tell you that you are right to question everything."

"I am?"

Her boss nodded. "There must be more to the story then what the best friend had told the main character, Naruto, because there is no way that a brother, who is gentle and kind, could do this…not unless there was a motive."

"He said the motive was power," Naruto pointed out.

"Is it? Or is it something else entirely? Wouldn't it be an easy thing to say? If he want power then why leave the little brother alone? The little brother would get in his way unless he want the brother to kill him," Her boss rubbed her chin. "I mean wouldn't it make more sense if the boy was trying to protect his brother? Maybe, the older brother was abused and he didn't want his younger brother to go through the same abuse…which was why he killed his family. Maybe, he was paid big money to do it…people would do anything for money. However, I really doubt that a gentle boy, who doesn't seem like a psychopath, to kill his family for power."

"So, you think that there is more to the story?"

"If I were to read the story then I can probably cook up several theories," her boss declared. "I used to make up crazy theories about All Might's quirk and the relationships between every hero. God, I remembered when I made up that theory that All Might's quirk wasn't just super strength but maybe something..."

Naruto ignored her boss as she babbled about the many theories that she had. Was her boss right? Was there a chance that there was more to the story then what Sasuke and everyone else knew? Was it possible that there was more than one person that she could blame for the down spiral of Sasuke's life? She glanced at her school bag, tempted to write a letter to Jiraya if he could look it up, but then decided against it.

She wasn't ready to do this.

* * *

A/N: Please review and tell me what you think.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: I would like to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows as well as everyone that reviewed the last chapter  
**

* * *

" _She should be imprisoned!"_

" _You promised me that you would bring him back! Why didn't you bring him back?"_

Naruto blinked her eyes and stared at the ceiling. Where was she? Was she in Konoha? Twisting her back around, the blond-haired girl relaxed her shoulders when she caught sight of her school uniform dangling on the chair. Her former teammate's face was just a memory now, her words no longer had any sway over her. The council had no control over her; she was no longer in the village. She looked at the ceiling, wondering not for the first time if she made a good call.

Should she had stayed in Konoha and face the reality like the strong person that she claimed to be? She missed her home from the ramen to even Kiba and his big mouth. She missed yelling at Kakashi-sensei with Sakura, when he tried to make up some stupid excuse for why he was late. She wanted to go back to the times, where she teased Hinata on her crush on Kiba, and the times where she would annoy Shikamaru about the clouds that he loved to watch.

Shaking her head, the blonde waddle her way to the chair and unbuttoned her pajamas shirt. As she buttoned up her shirt, the blonde hesitated when she saw the scar that marked her skin. Why did the bastard left her alive? Just one more cm and he would have succeeded in killing her. It wasn't like Sasuke to miss. The bastard was a lot of things but he would never miss something like this…not when he spent years training to kill his big brother. If he really wanted to kill her then what made him change his mind in the last minute? So many questions but there weren't enough answers.

She buttoned the last button and put on her skirt before making her way out of the door. Slipping on the headphones into her ear, the blond-haired girl allowed the music to redirect her thoughts to something else. What were they going to do today? Were they going to be facing another battle scenario? She hoped not. She didn't want to be partnered up with Bakugou again. The asshole had brought back to many bad memories; memories that she just wanted to forget about. Maybe, they were going to do something normal for once. It would be nice if she just had to worry about passing a test, today.

"Naru-chan!"

The blond-haired girl pulled out her headphones and blinked at the sight of Itsuka running towards her with a large smile. Had she already reach school? She scanned the area and then flickered her eyes to the bus stop, before realizing that the girl must be going on the same bus as her. For a moment, she considered the idea that her acquaintance was stalking her.

It was a stupid thought because who would stalk her?

"Hi Itsuka-chan."

The orange-haired girl beamed and before the blonde could open her mouth to protest, the girl linked their arms together as they went up the steps of the bus. Why did she have to run into the girl when she wasn't in the mood to interact with anyone? Why couldn't she have run into a person that she didn't know all too well? Now, she needed to actually make an effort to talk to her or else it would seem very rude of her not to care about what she had to say. Honestly, it must be her bad luck today.

"You look like shit today," Naruto blinked her eyes at the girl and Itsuka tapped her undereye at her. "You got dark circles under your eyes, which means that you haven't had a good night's sleep. Do you want to talk about it?"

"It was just some stupid nightmare," the blonde lied, shaking her head.

The orange-haired girl nodded but Naruto could see there was doubt in her eyes about the truth behind her words. She wasn't exactly lying about her dream but there was no way that she could tell her that she spent the whole night remembering the past. No one would ever believe the life that she had. How could they? Konoha and the other hidden villages were kept in a veil that separated their two countries.

Only the government knew about this as well as the people that protected the veil. Everything else was kept a secret from them.

"You know before we go to class, we might need to put some makeup on you," Itsuka said.

Naruto jerked her head at her acquaintance, who had a large smile on her face. What did she mean she need to put some makeup? There was no way in hell that the girl could make her put any makeup on her face. She spent years avoiding the abomination. She was here to become a hero, not become some floozy girl that didn't take her work seriously. There was no chance that she was going to let herself end up like Sakura and Ino.

She wasn't going to disguise her face.

"Why are you making that face, Naru-chan? I'm not going to make you do anything you don't want to do," Itsuka said. "I just thought that you wouldn't want to make it obvious to everyone that you are exhausted."

The blond-haired girl looked down at her skirt and stared at her hands. She hadn't thought that the girl was considering about what she wanted; she thought that the girl wanted to force her to do something that she didn't want to do. Why did she think like that? Maybe it was because all the girls used to tell her that she would look decent if she wore some makeup. Maybe it was the fact that she always associated makeup with girls that didn't take their training seriously, but the point was that she was wrong to judge.

"I'm sorry but I don't really like makeup," Naruto admitted. "I didn't think you thought to cover up the fact that I had a bad night."

"You thought makeup were for girls that wanted to impress boys, didn't you?"

The blonde nodded and the orange haired girl smiled sympathetically at her. Was she stupid to think like that? It wasn't like her thoughts were wrong. There had been days when Sakura had been late to a meeting because she was trying on some makeup. God, Naruto remembered that when Sakura and her had to share a room, that the girl would mostly put makeup stuff in front of the mirror.

Sometimes, Naruto wondered why Sakura wanted to be a ninja.

"You know that is one reason for girls wearing makeup but there are a lot of reasons to wear it," Itsuka explained as they walked out of the bus. "Sometimes girls wear it to express themselves and sometimes they wear makeup to give confidence. In fact, wearing makeup can be fun…but not everyone has to like it."

"I'm sorry for the way I reacted."

Itsuka laughed. "Why are you sorry? It isn't wrong of you to voice your opinions. Everyone have their own opinion on why they wear stuff, but I didn't want you to think so negative about it. So do you want me to help you cover up your dark circles?"

The blonde sighed and nodded her head. There was no way that she was going to class with people asking her if everything was fine. She didn't need any more attention on herself. It was bad enough that everyone had been concern about her after seeing her walk away from Bakugou. She just needed some time alone to herself so that she could get herself together.

God, this was going to be a nightmare for her.

* * *

"First off, I would like to say good work with yesterday's battle training and that I have read All Might's grades and evaluation for each one of you," Aizawa-sensei said, drawing Naruto's attention away from the book. The man placed the piles of paper onto the table, before looking at each student with tired eyes. His eyes lingered the longest on her and the blond-haired girl wondered what did All Might wrote about her during his evaluations. Did he mention about the fact that she walked out of the class when her battle was over? She prayed to god that wasn't the case. She didn't want him to think that she was a troublemaker. "However I would like to address a few people from the battle training."

"Bakugou," the blond-haired boy grimaced as their homeroom teacher fixed his eyes on him. "I want you to stop your childish behavior and grow up. If you keep this up then you will only be wasting your talent."

"I know."

Naruto stared at the blackboard, ignoring the stare from her classmate. He could pout all he wanted, could be angry as much as he wanted but she was never going to apologize for her actions. She told him that she would interfere if he went too far, and the bastard went too far to her liking. However, she couldn't ignore the fact that he was growing up since he admitted that he was acting like a kid. The old Bakugou would have yelled but this bastard had admitted that he was in the wrong.

However, she would need to keep her eyes fixed on Bakugou.

"Uzumaki, I want to have a talk with you after school," Aizawa-sensei said, staring straight into her eyes with no hint of emotions. Shit. What the hell were they going to have a talk about? Were they going to have a talk about her part time job? She asked for permission to work, but they gave her permission. Maybe, they wanted her to know that she needed to have good grades if she wanted to keep her job.

"Now onto homeroom business," Aizawa-sensei said, turning his attention to everyone else. Naruto relaxed her shoulders, slipping her head onto the table but being careful to mind her eyes. Itsuka had told her that she might need to be careful since the concealer doesn't last forever. Next time, she might need to go and see a pharmacist for some medicine that could let her get some sleep. "It is time for all of you to pick a class president."

The blonde placed her fingers inside her ears as cheers erupted from every corner in the classroom. In just mere seconds, Kirishima was waving his seconds, yelling the words 'me', 'me' while Kaminari perked up from his seat. Bakugou slammed his hand on the table, waving with his other hand as he demanded for their teacher to pick him as their class representative. Even Midoriya was raising his hand up for the job.

The blonde glanced at her seat partner, who seemed to look bored at this announcement. If Sakura and the other girls in the Academy were here, would they consider Todoroki hot? He did have the brooding thing going on, but unlike Sasuke, the blond-haired girl didn't sense any complete hate from him. In fact, he didn't have the same type of sneer that her best friend had. To be honest, he was just quiet but there were times when she sensed that he was gentle…and that he did care about people's feelings.

If Sasuke had been like this then Naruto would understand why Sakura and all the other girls had a crush on him.

She felt her cheeks burning up when her classmate shifted his eyes to look at her. Why was she embarrassed? She didn't do anything wrong. It wasn't like she was plotting how to steal his underwear or anything. She shook her head and looked at her hands, wishing not for the first time that she could just disappear. She glanced at her classmate, who raised his eyebrow and she could only smile nervously.

He blinked his eyes and the blonde wondered if she did something strange.

"Quiet down, everyone!"

The blue-eyed girl tore her eyes away from Todoroki and fixed her attention on Iida. The boy may be sitting on his chair but there was no denying the fact that her classmate had his hand raised the highest. Looking at him, the blonde could understand the reason that he would volunteered himself. In fact, he looked like the stereotype of the class representative.

"Being a leader is a heavy responsibility," Iida proclaimed. "Ambition doesn't equal to ability and not anyone can do this job. If we want to be democratic then our true leader must be chosen by election."

"But Iida, we haven't known each other long enough to build any trust," Tsuyu pointed out.

"Not only that but everyone will just vote for themselves!" Kirishima said.

Naruto sighed and made her way towards the front. Why must she get involved? Why couldn't she just let them to deal with this mess? Oh yeah, because they were going to be idiots when it come to the process. Maybe, it was time to put some of her experience to use. She might not have been a chunin but she still recalled the qualities that made someone a good leader.

When Shikamaru became a chunin, she hadn't been upset because she knew the reason that the Hokage thought the lazy ass was good enough to be a shinobi.

"Then if we are going to do this then I need all of you to think properly," Naruto said, drawing everyone's attention to her. All the students whipped their head at her but the blonde ignored their disbeliefs, as she picked up the chalk from the blackboard. "We need to pick someone that doesn't pick fights, someone who actually pay attention to details but most of all, we need someone that can act as a bridge. Now I'm not telling you who to vote, but I will inform you that my vote goes to Iida."

Every single one of them blinked their eyes at her, looking at her like she was insane for voting for the boy. Did they actually think she was going to vote for herself? She knew she was terrible for the job. For her to lead them, meant that she trusted herself not to screw things up. It meant that she thought she was responsible and Naruto knew that she was nowhere, responsible for the job. She might have the confidence but that was it.

"Thank you, Uzumaki-san."

"Naruto." Everyone blinked their eyes and the blonde made her way back to her chair. "I don't like being called Uzumaki-san or even Uzumaki. Now if you excuse me, I'm going to the toilet."

She wasn't kidding.

She really needed to pee.

* * *

It seemed like it was starting to become a habit for Uzumaki and him to have lunch together, Todoroki mused to himself as the blond-haired girl took her seat in front of him. Not that he minded her company. His classmate may have her secrecy, and he might think he knew her reasons but the girl was a contradiction. For someone, who claimed that it was hard for her to interact with people, she had been able to grab everyone's attention.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"You aren't like what you claimed to be," he said, causing the blond-haired girl to raise her eyebrow. "For someone who claimed that it is hard for you to interact with people, you don't seem to have a problem in grabbing people's attention. You got everyone to listen to you when you decided that Iida-san should be the class president and pointed out the qualities that a leader needed to have."

The blonde sighed and stared out at the window. "It would have taken them forever to decide who would be a good class representative since everyone wants to lead, which would have made everything messy."

"So you did it to cut the time?" His classmate nodded before looking down at her ramen with a strange far-away look. Shoto frowned and wondered what the girl was remembering, from the sadness in her eyes, he could guess that she was recalling the abused that she endured. If he didn't know that Uzumaki was skittish then he would ask her about her past. "You know that you are a terrible liar?"

"I will have you know that I'm an excellent liar," Uzumaki retorted and Shoto blinked his eyes when he caught sight of the mischief in her eyes. Mischief suited her more than the sadness and emptiness in her eyes. With the mischief shining through her eyes, he could see that her eyes resemble electricity. "Why are you looking at me like that? I am telling you the truth, believe it!"

His classmate groaned and slammed her head on the table, before twisting her head away from him. He didn't miss the redness in her cheeks, which made him wonder why his classmate was so embarrassed. He opened his mouth to question her but then closed it. He didn't want Naruto to become more upset with him. It was a miracle that the girl was showing some form of emotion to him, which was more than some people could say.

He shrugged his shoulder and watched as the blond-haired girl slapped her cheeks before turning her attention to him. The mischief in her eyes died down and had been replaced with coldness. It was clear to him that his classmate did know how to express her feelings, unlike him, but she chose not to show her emotions.

"You know it is kind of creepy that you are looking at me like that? Do I have some ramen on my face? Do my eyes look bad?" Uzumaki groaned. "I am going to blame Itsuka for the last part."

"Itsuka?"

"She is a friend?" Naruto said but it sounded more like a question to his ears. The way her eyes shone with doubt told Shoto that just like him, his classmate didn't really had many friends growing up. It was almost comforting to know this, but at the same time it worried him that his classmate didn't have many opportunities to make friends.

"So why are you going to blame her?"

"If I tell you then it will become obvious," his classmate explained. "And since you didn't notice it then there is no need for me to tell you."

"I should have expected you to say that."

The blue-eyed girl raised her eyebrow but didn't say anything, instead she flickered her eyes at their surroundings. A small frown decorated her face but it was gone before he could even open his mouth to apologize. Something was bothering her, Todoroki realized as his classmate kept glancing around at their surroundings like she was expecting someone to attack them.

"Did anyone ever tell you that you are too blunt for your own good?"

"You are the first person to bring it to my attention," Todoroki said, earning a raised eyebrow at the girl. He wasn't lying. His classmate was the first person to say this to him. During his elementary school days, everyone had fawned over him because he was the child of the Number Two Hero. Some of the kids tried to become close to him because they wanted to meet his father, but he never got close to anyone.

He didn't want to end up being like his father.

"I supposed no one would tell you that since the girls were too busy fawning over you." He jerked his head at his classmate's words and opened his mouth to protest, but the blonde snorted. "You expect me to believe that you of all people, didn't have any fangirls? If Sasuke had a hundred fangirls then you would have a thousand since you are even prettier than him…I can't believe I just said that."

He felt his lips twitched when the blond-haired girl flushed a pretty shade of red. It was nice to see his classmate look embarrassed and not look so lifeless like she usually did. The redness of her cheek suited her, Shoto decided as he took a bite of his ramen. Once the blonde stopped blushing, she folded her arms against her chest and made a pout that almost reminded of a cute puppy.

"It isn't funny!"

"I didn't say anything."

The blonde rolled her eyes. "But your face told me everything. I just told you that without any objective thoughts that you looked prettier than every guy I know. It doesn't mean that I find you attractive…it just means I am stating an obvious fact."

"Okay."

His classmate opened her mouth but it closed when a sudden alarm pierced through the cafeteria, replacing the calm atmosphere with anxiety and panic. Within a split second, Uzumaki jumped off from her seat, forgetting the conversation that they just had. She flickered her bright blue eyes at him and he nodded his head at her, jumping up from his spot. She hadn't been the only one to hear the alarm and the warning from the school, however everyone else was just frozen in shock for what just happened.

He grabbed hold of his classmate as a stampede of students shoved and clawed their way past each other. His classmate flickered her eyes at him before turning her head to look at the other students, frowning as she did so. He tightened his grip on her as more and more students shoved them. He couldn't entertain the possibility of letting his classmate getting hurt, not when he didn't know what her triggers were.

"Where are the teachers?" Uzumaki asked, gently losing his grip on her arms. She looked around the chaos that was the canteen and then turned her eyes to him. She gestured for him to start moving with the stampede and with a reluctant sigh, he decided to do as the girl ordered. "If this was a breach then why aren't the teachers helping us? If it was dangerous then they would be telling us what to do."

"What do you think is happening?"

"I think there is more to the story then we know," his classmate answered. "And I think we have nothing to worry about since there are no teachers telling us to run away. In situations like these then there is always a teacher that must be here to protect the students. I mean if…"

She trailed off and Shoto grabbed hold of the girl's shoulder, directing her the other way as students tried to push them away. He understood what his classmate was getting at, but the problem was more to do with the fact that the stampede of students were dangerous. He glanced at their surroundings before making a wall of ice that separated them from everyone else.

The blond-haired girl raised her eyebrow. "Why did you do that?"

"Do you want to be pushed around by the stampede?"

"Todoroki would have been so useful during the Academy," his classmate muttered, eyeing his handiwork. "Then again if Todoroki had been in the Academy then I would have double the headache since there would be a war on who was cuter."

"Uzumaki, what are you talking about?"

"You will pretend that you never heard a word I said." Uzumaki ordered.

It was official:

Shoto didn't understand a thing about girls.

* * *

They had barely finished the adrenaline from the drama that was lunch when Aizawa-sensei informed them that they were going to a trip, where they would prepare them for disaster relief. It really shouldn't have surprised Naruto that they were doing a training trip without any warning, since the school didn't like to give them any warning. Apparently, surprise was to be their teacher.

Frankly, she just wanted the day to be over and she could go to her part-time job.

"Everyone line up according to your class identification number," Iida whistled and gestured for them to line up. "Please fill those seats in an orderly fashion."

Naruto shrugged her shoulders and took her spot beside Kirishima, who grinned at her. She forced herself to smile at him before turning her head to the bus in front of them. There was no reason for her to show anymore emotions. It was bad enough that Todoroki made her act like an idiot, or the very least, made her show some emotions.

She couldn't afford to make the same mistake again.

As they piled into the bus, the blue-eyed girl ignored the murmurs among her classmates and their excited chatter. Maybe it was time for her to read the book again. Despite being a pervert, Jiraya made a story that was enjoyable to read. It was just a shame that the book didn't get the reviews that it deserved.

She had only reached chapter 4 when Asui had said something that caught her attention. It wasn't like Naruto made it her business to hear what people had to say, but the girl's words were making her brain work overtime.

"Midoriya-chan," Asui said. "You know your quirk resembles All Might."

Keeping her eyes fixed on the book, Naruto flickered her eyes at Midoriya and frowned at the panic look on his face. She licked her lips, tilted her head and remembered the words of her boss. There was nothing wrong with questioning everything, and the fact that he panicked told her that his newfound quirk had something to do with All Might.

What does his quirk have to do with the hero?

"All Might doesn't get hurt when he uses his quirk though," Kirishima pointed out. "They are already different in that way."

There was some truth in his words but Midoriya didn't always have his quirk. Naruto could still recall the days where her classmate had been bullied by his lack of quirk. No, her classmate had just got his quirk and there was a connection to All Might.

The only question that she had to wonder: what was the connection? What was she missing? There was a link between them and this meant that she had to observe them carefully.

"…You know if we want to talk about quirks that are strong and cool? That would be Todoroki, Bakugou and Uzumaki," Kirishima said, snapping her out of her train of thought. "Uzumaki's quirk is especially strong since it allows her to do so many things. She can make clones, enhances her strength and even stick to the walls."

"But doesn't it remind you of Uzushiokage's quirk? Naruto-chan, are you related to him?"

The blond-haired girl blinked and shook her head. "I don't think so but then again, I never knew my parents or their family members."

Everyone, except Bakugou and Midoriya, looked at her in shock. Didn't they know about it? Oh wait, they wouldn't know since she never talked about herself. Maybe, it would be a good idea for her to keep her mouth shut and focus on everything else.

Yup, she regretted opening her big mouth.

* * *

A/N: Please review and tell me what you think.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: I want to thank everyone that added this story to their favorites and follows.**

* * *

 **Konoha**

"Did you find any clues about her whereabouts?"

Jiraya shook his head, earning a sigh from his teammate. For the past two years since Naruto left the village, his teammate had asked him the same question. The moment it became known to her and the shinobi council that Naruto left, they ordered every available shinobi to search for the girl. Every single person who was close to the young girl had been asked to find her and bring her to Konoha at any cost.

"I can't understand how no one can find any clues," Tsunade grumbled, opening a bottle of sake. She poured herself a drink, gazing at it with a frown before gulping it down in one shot. "It shouldn't be that hard for us to find her. We have members of the Inuzuka clan searching for her and your spy network too but that girl is evading us."

Jiraya thinned his lips and looked out at the window, where he could see several children playing a game of ninja. There was no chance that he could tell his teammate about his actions. He could never tell her that Naruto was no longer in their continent. How could he? He broke the law by helping the girl escaped from the village.

For all her boasts and smiles, Naruto had never really felt happy in this village. How could she be happy here? People stared at the girl like she was a monster. She was kicked out of the orphanage because of the demon inside of her. It was a miracle that she stayed as long as she did. If it had been anyone else, they would have run a long time ago. They would have gone crazy from the treatment that they were forced to go through.

It was the main reason that he decided to help Naruto get out of the village. He should have reminded his goddaughter the amount of trouble that she would be in. It was one thing for an Uchiha to escape from the village but it was a different story for a jinchuuriki. By leaving the village, the girl had made Konoha weaker in the eyes of the hidden village. He should have gone with his original plan for his student, but her eyes haunted him.

It was her words which tore his heart.

" _Ero-sennin, I feel so fucking tired of everything! I can't take it anymore! I can't keep pretending that I am happy and everything is okay. I just want to live in peace. I just want to live in a place where no one would look at me with judging eyes. I think I am going to become crazy if I stay here any longer! Please let me go! Please!"_

He abandoned the girl for his spy network and not once did he stop to think about the child that his student left behind. He fooled himself into thinking that Naruto didn't need him. He thought that Minato knew what he was doing when he decided that all the adults should know that his baby girl was the jinchuuriki. Those words along with the emptiness in her eyes told him that the jinchuuriki needed to leave the village.

He sent Naruto to Japan because he wanted to protect her from her loneliness. Jiraya took Naruto through several countries as he tried to find information about how to send her to Japan. He tried to make jokes with the girl, hoping and praying that he would see her sass but nothing came out of it. He wanted to see some resemblance of the girl that she used to be.

Instead, he was greeted with a girl that could barely smile.

"Do you really want to bring her back here?"

"Of course, I want to bring her back," Tsunade gulped down her sake and stared at him. "She is the reason that I decided to become Hokage. I don't know who was the fucking fool that suggested that she should be exiled but when I find out who that idiot is, I'm going to destroy him. If anyone should be exiled, it should be that Uchiha."

Jiraya grimaced at the woman's words. Sasuke Uchiha was one of the reasons for Naruto's breakdown. He was the catalyst for his goddaughter leaving the world that she knew and taking the chance into going into a world, where no one knew her. He was one of the reasons why he had to thread carefully with Tsunade or else he would face dire consequence if she knew what he did.

"Do you think Naruto is fine in wherever she is?"

"Naruto is a fighter," Jiraya answered. "She can handle anything."

* * *

 **Naruto**

Uzushiokage.

Why hadn't she notice there was a hero with a shinobi title? Naruto might not have much care when it came to heroes but how could it escape her notice? Should she have gone to a different country? A person with a shinobi title might have connections with other village. She shook her head. There was a chance that she was wrong about that. If a shinobi was in this country then why would he become a hero? There was something odd about the whole thing.

"What are you thinking about? You have been reading the same page for the whole bus ride."

Naruto blinked and turned her head to look at Kirishima, who looked at her with concern. Looking down at her book, she was taken back to see that her classmate was right. It had been a long time since she dazed off. The last time she could recall doing this was when she was in the Academy. Although she was always daydreaming about her pranks at the time and no one seemed to care about her lack of attention.

"Uzushiokage…I never heard about him until now."

"He recently entered the hero scene about two years ago," Kirishima informed her. "But despite being a newcomer, he is rising through the ranks."

Naruto chewed on her lower lip at this information. Rising through the ranks? Maybe that is why she didn't know him. They might talk about him in the media but there was no time for her to read the newspaper or read the magazines. If it weren't for the fact that All Might was everywhere, she wouldn't even know who he was. Maybe, it was a coincidence that he had that name.

"Which hero school did he graduate from?"

She just needed to double confirm this.

"Shiketsu High," Izuku answered before Kirishima could answer her question.

Naruto relaxed her shoulders when she heard this. The hero really did not come from her part of the world so there was nothing for her to be concern about. Yet, there was something odd about this. How could her abilities be similar to the hero? She was using chakra and passing it off as her quirk. There was no one else that could do the things that she could do.

But why Uzushiokage? Why would he pick that name?

"I guess you weren't kidding when you said that you weren't related to him," Denki said, drawing her back to reality.

She frowned at her classmate. "I said that I don't think so but I never said it wasn't a possibility. If I knew who my parents were then I can confirm for a fact that we aren't related."

"You really don't know anything about your family?" Ochako asked.

Naruto felt like squirming in her seat when everyone turned their eyes on her. Why did it feel like they were interrogating her? Was it that strange that she didn't know anything about her family? It wasn't like she asked the Hokage to keep it a secret from her. She spent so many years trying to find out the answers but no matter of pleading and research would bring her the answers that she need.

"My parents died when I was born," Naruto finally answered, forcing herself to answer in a calm tone. There was no reason for her to be upset. She spent so many years being an orphan that it was stupid for her to be defensive. "The old man that used to take care of me told me that my father died in the line of duty and I presumed my mother died giving birth to me."

Well she couldn't tell them that the Hokage told her that her mother was a badass and died in the line of duty. It would make no sense for her to say that.

"Didn't the old man who took care of you, tell you about your parents? It sounds like that he knew them."

"He died before I could ask him again about my parents," Naruto answered. "He was the only link that I had to my parents."

It was the truth too because the Hokage did die before she could ask him again. He was the only one who seem to know anything about them. She was certain that he knew who her parents were because how could the old man be so confident to tell her that her parents hadn't abandon her? How could he tell her without any hints of lying that they died on the line of duty? The only thing she wondered was why would he keep it a secret? All her life, she wanted to know about the parents that she never had.

Till this day, she wondered if she looked like her mother or her father. She wondered if her father had been a powerful shinobi or if he had been an ordinary shinobi. She wanted to know if her parents had any family members. She longed to know what her parents had been like as kids. She wanted to know how they met and how they fell in love.

She wanted to know everything about them but it was all taken from her.

Orochimaru took away her chance of knowing the truth about her parents. He took away the two good things that she had going in the village and she despised him for it. He took away the man that treated her with kindness and he stole the one friend that she thought would never abandon her.

He was the catalyst of her coming to this world.

"If the old man is dead then who is taking care of you?" Asui asked.

Take care of her? Did anyone ever take care of her? Sure she lived in the orphanage for the first few years of her life but the matron never cared for her. She barely protected her from the bullying and never called her by her name. If anything, Naruto had to take care of herself. Maybe the ANBU took care of her once but Weasel was gone and Inu gave up his job.

When she thought about it, her life was just depressing.

"I take care of myself," Naruto flung her head up and stared at the ceiling. "No one wanted to take me in and I didn't get along with anyone in the orphanage. The old hag and I agree that it was better for me to leave."

"If you live by yourself then how are you paying rent?"

"I have a part-time job that pays well," Naruto shrugged her shoulder. "I don't see why it is such a big deal that I'm living by myself."

Maybe it was because this country saw children as children. From her understanding of this country and the other countries surrounding them, children were not able to live by themselves. A child should never be left alone but most of all, a child should live with someone. They didn't think it was possible for them to be independent.

Kids weren't forced to grow up.

* * *

"This is nearly as big as Universal Studio Japan!"

Naruto glanced at her excited classmates and then at the parks around them. From her limited eyesight, she could see several themes in the building. There was a lake nearby indicating that they might have some work to do in the water. She hoped that if they were going into the water then she wasn't going to be doing all the work. During the chunin exams, she had been the one to capture food for everyone.

Okay to be fair on her teammate; Sasuke did cook the food that she captured.

"I was hoping to have that reaction," Naruto turned her head around and raised her eyebrow when she saw a hero standing in front of the gates. "As you can see from your surroundings, this building has every disaster and accident zone that you can imagine. The flood zone, the land-slide zone and the conflagration zone are just few of the zones that you will experience today. I build this facility myself and I called this the 'Unforeseen Simulation Joint'."

While her classmates awed at the man's introduction, the blonde could only raised her eyebrows at the name of the building. Unforeseen Simulation Joint? Well that was actually straight to the point but then again, Konoha was not any better. The Forest of Death was literally a forest, where there was a high probability for a person to die. There were monsters that could literally kill them if they weren't careful.

Yeah, she should not really judge them.

"Thirteen. Where is All Might?" Aizawa-sensei said, snapping Naruto from her train of thought. "I thought he was meeting us here."

All Might was supposed to be here? Why wasn't he here? Naruto glanced at her classmates, wondering if one of them had any idea about what happened with All Might. It seemed like no one paid attention to their teacher instead they seemed happier to talk to each other about their ideas on what they were going to do today. Maybe she was overthinking about things but Thirteen was holding up three fingers.

When Naruto was younger, she made it a game to spot her ANBU guards. Whenever she spotted them the guards would make some hand signals before hiding from her again. When she looked back, it should have been obvious that she was someone special to the village because why would the Hokage invest so many guards on her. She shook her head and stared at her teachers, channeling her chakra into her ears and listening into their conversation.

"It seemed he just about reached his _**limit**_ during his morning commute," Thirteen whispered. "He is resting in the break room."

Limit? Break room? Why would he have his limit? Wasn't All Might suppose to be invincible? She chewed on her lower lip. Then again was anyone invincible? The Third Hokage had been invincible in her eyes. In her happy days, she thought that the old man would be there forever. She made a stupid belief to think that the old man would simply grow tired of having the hat and give it to her when she was strong enough.

She thought he would die from old age.

Not once did she think he could be murdered by his own student.

"Before we get started, I would like to raise a point with all of you," Thirteen said, drawing everyone's attention back to him. He shook his head. "Actually it might be two points or is it three? Now that I think about it, there might be four points…"

 _Make up your mind_ Naruto grumbled to herself as everyone raised their eyebrows at the hero. She glanced at Aizawa-sensei and felt her palms sweating when the man kept his eyes fixed on her. Why was he looking at her? Did he know that she lied about her birth place? No, there was no chance in hell that they bothered to look into her past. Then again why would he want to talk to her? He shouldn't concern himself with her.

As far as everyone was concern, she was an orphan kid that had the incredible chance of getting into this high school. No one knew about her actual past. No one knew about the terrible thing that she did.

No one knew she abandoned her village because she was nearly killed by the boy, who she thought was her best-friend. No one knew that her teammate blamed her for losing Sasuke or that the council had been planning to exile her behind Tsunade's back.

Was it wrong that she wanted to breath?

"You should focus on Thirteen-sensei's speech Uzumaki."

The blond-haired girl glanced at Todoroki, who still had his eyes fixed on their teacher as he explained the dangers of his quirk. Was it obvious that she wasn't paying attention? No one seemed to be paying much attention to her. Almost all of her classmates were enthralled by the man's words.

Yet Todoroki seemed to be paying attention to her lack of awareness.

"I have my reasons for not paying attention," Naruto whispered. "Why aren't you paying attention?"

Todoroki arched his eyebrow. "Because I know the basics of his speech."

"What? You heard it a million times before?" Her friend didn't answer but it was all she needed to know that he had heard this speech before. "Why am I not surprised? Next thing you are going to tell me that you are being groomed to take over your father's job."

She meant it as a joke but the tension in her friend's jaw told her that he didn't find it funny. Was there something that she was missing? Naruto didn't know Todoroki all that well but he always gave the impression that nothing angered him. It seemed like the mention of his father would bring out the fire in him.

She wondered if it was his father that gave him the scar.

"I meant it as a joke…I didn't mean to make you angry."

He didn't answer her and the blond-haired girl took it as a sign that maybe she should just keep her mouth shut.

"I don't like talking about my father."

"I didn't like talking about the fact that I have no parents to everyone in the bus." She licked her dried lips and smiled sardonically. "It might seem like I accepted the fact that I'm an orphan but I never liked telling people that I have no parents. I hate it when people look at me with pity. I…"

"If that is your way of apologizing then you shouldn't apologize," She opened her mouth to protest and her friend shook his head. "You didn't know because I don't like talking about him."

Todoroki looked down at her and Naruto forced herself to look at his strange-colored eyes. Ever since her battle with Sasuke, she always made it a point not to gaze into someone's eyes. Gazing into people's eyes meant that you were willing to let them see your weakness. It meant letting them know that you don't mind being hurt or that they know how you feel.

After three years, Naruto was so tired of keeping her walls up.

"I want to thank all of you for listening!"

Wow, they spent more time whispering that they hadn't been able to listen to the man give his points. It probably wasn't that important, she reasoned to herself while everyone applauded him. There was nothing he could have said that she hadn't heard before.

"Great. First off…"

Naruto didn't pay attention to what their homeroom teacher was going to say. She didn't pay attention because of that strange swirling sound. She didn't pay attention because the hairs in the back of her neck was standing up. She took in several deep breaths and turned her body around to the main plaza, where a black whirlpool was forming.

She might not have been here for long but Naruto knew for a damn fact that wasn't normal in a school; even if it was a school filled with heroes.

"What the hell is that? Are those robots? Like the ones during the entrance exam?" Kirishima asked.

Naruto channeled her chakra into her eyes and focused on the group of people in the middle. There was a young man coming out. A young man, who had his face covered up with so many hands that she wanted to hurl. What was happening? She felt bile rising up as a wave of anger and hate washed over her.

This anger and resentment was going to choke her to death.

"Uzumaki! Don't even think of moving another step!" Aizawa yelled at her and Naruto looked down at her feet. She hadn't even realized that she was moving. She just wanted to get rid of that source of emotions.

"I thought heroes weren't supposed to run away from villains!" Naruto fixed her eyes on their sensei. "I'm not a coward! I am going to beat those villains up even if it kills me."

* * *

A/N: Please review and tell me what you think.


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: I would like to thank everyone that added this story to their favorite and follows as well as everyone that reviewed.

* * *

"I'm going to beat those villains up even if it kills me."

Naruto didn't know what possessed her to say those words to her teacher. She was not the same stupid girl any more. The stupid girl would proclaim such bold words in front of her teacher. Her past self would be the girl that would act recklessly but she was not that girl any more. Yet as she stared at those villains, a part of her could not stand still and watch those people attack them.

"You are not trained to deal with them, Uzumaki." Aizawa reminded her as her fellow students looked at her with shock. "You have just recently graduated from middle school and those robots you dealt in the entrance exam is nothing compared to those villains."

"H-He is right, Uzumaki!" Kaminari stuttered while the other students looked at the villains that were coming towards them. "It isn't a cowardly thing to admit that we can't handle them."

 _But I can handle them,_ Naruto thought to herself as she fixed her eyes on the head villain. It was true that she just graduated from middle school but she hadn't always been a student. Before everything screwed her over, she had been a shinobi. She fought people that were stronger than these people and she survived. She had beaten a chunin even though the odds were against her.

She had luck the first time but Naruto had experience now.

"I can handle them," Naruto repeated herself. "I have enough battle experience that I know the hell what I am doing."

"We don't even know their numbers," Todoroki pointed out to her. "Can you even make enough clones to sustain them? We don't know how many of them are here or what their quirks are."

"The better question we should be concern about is how did they get here?" Momo said, sweating at the sight of the villains in front of them. "There should be intruder sensors right?"

"Of course there are," Thirteen replied.

Intruder sensors? Hadn't it been activated when those news people came? Naruto frowned and looked at the villains carefully. Was it possible that they had someone who could interfere with the sensors? But how would they know where the sensors were? And why were they attacking them? If they wanted a better scene then they should go for the main building.

Something was not making sense.

"Why us?" Naruto questioned herself as she flickered her eyes to everyone. "What is so special about us?"

"What do you mean?" Ochako asked as the blonde took another step forward.

The blond-haired girl frowned and twisted her body to look at her fellow classmates. Each one of them seemed to have a normal childhood and none of their quirks were anything special. If she did not know that no one knew what she was, she would think that they were after her. She thinned her lips. Could there be something that she was missing? In the Forest of Death, Orochimaru singled them out because of Sasuke and his sharingan.

Was there something precious here?

"This was planned," Naruto explained. "For them to come here when there is so little of us tells me that they are after something. This isn't something that they come up in a whim…this is something that requires weeks or even months of planning. The only question is why? What the hell is their objective? It isn't attention because they would need a lot of heroes or at the very least…"

All Might.

"At the very least…" Izuku prompted.

"All Might," she finished. "What better way to get attention then to defeat the best hero of all time or all the heroes in the school?"

Their teachers grimaced at her words and Naruto had no doubt that her teachers had the same thoughts as her. What better way to destroy hope than to defeat him? She asked herself as she took out the kunai from her pouch. It would be a wonderful way to bring disorder. There was no way she could allow this to happen. She was never going to let them accomplish this.

But could she really handle them? A small voice asked herself as she stared at the villains. She might talk big but she lost to her best friend. She could not bring him back home to the village so how could it be possible for her to defeat them? She sucked her bottom lip. Maybe, it would be better for her to leave it to Aizawa-sensei. She might screw things up again.

She could not afford to screw things up.

"Kaminari," Aizawa-sensei said, snapping her out of her train of her thoughts. "Try to use your quirk to signal for help."

Kaminari tensed up but nodded his head at their teacher, who turned to her. She could see the warning in his eyes. He wanted her to obey his orders and the girl who failed to bring her friend back, wanted to follow his orders. Yet, a large part of her could not accept his order. It was just difficult for Naruto to watch her teacher fight those villains in an unfair fight.

"Sensei, you can't fight them all alone!" Izuku yelled. "Even you can't nullify all those villains quirk. As Eraser Head, your fighting style involves erasure and a quick binding capture. A head-on battle is not…"

The young man put on the goggles and stared at her classmate. "No good hero is a one-trick pony."

Naruto shivered at her teacher's words and watched blankly as he jumped towards the villains. She glanced at her classmates and then to the approaching villains. There must be around a hundred villains and the man just proclaimed that he could handle them. Was he like Kakashi in term of talent? Now that she thought about it, she never stopped to ask Izuku or research what the man could do.

She looked at Aizawa and watched with raised eyebrows as he defeated them with a couple of taijutsu move. Watching him, Naruto guessed that her teacher would be considered chuunin level to jounin level in term of strength. However, their teacher lacked speed. If her eyes could keep up then the man must be in genin level of speed.

"Aizawa-sensei can really hold his own even when out-numbered," Izuku said.

"But for how long?" Naruto asked.

Iida pinched his nose. "This isn't the time for the two of you to analysis! Hurry up and evacuate! We need to leave before they notice us."

Just as soon as her classmate finished saying those words, a black mist started to appear in front of them. The former kunoichi felt the hairs in her hand started to stand up as she felt a sinister energy coming from the mist. Why the hell did she decide to throw her kunai away? She should have kept the knife but then again, she never entertained the idea of becoming a superhero.

"I am afraid that it is too late."

Wait, the mist can talk now?

She saw everything now.

While she tried to process what the hell was happening, her classmates could only stare at the talking mist with horror. If they ever thought that they could escape then this mist man was not going to let them go. Oh maybe he would, Naruto bit her lips as she tried to come up with a plan. Could her clones distract him? No. Wait, wasn't there a jutsu that could create a thick mist?

But she never learnt that jutsu and it would be risky for her to try a jutsu that she had no idea how to do it.

"Greetings, we are the League of Villains," The man said, snapping her out of her thoughts. "Forgive our audacity but today, we have come here to U.A High School-this bastion of heroism in order to end the life of All Might, the symbol of peace."

She had a feeling about this but Naruto never thought that the man was going to admit this. Were they going to have another scanerio like the one in the chunnin exam? She bit her lips. It would not be the same story since these people were more reckless. Orochimaru took them by surprise and knew everything about them, while these villains had no clue about them.

"We were under the impression that All Might would be here today," the man continued. "It seems like his schedule was revised? Well, it does not matter."

How could they know that he was going to be here? Was there a traitor in the school? Was there someone, who acted like Kabuto in the school? She narrowed her eyes and put her two hands together. Could her clones take him down? Did he have a physical body? It would not hurt for her clones to attack him since there wouldn't be any harm falling on her.

"Well it does not matter, my role is still the same."

Just as soon as he finished saying those words, Bakugou and Kirishima charged at him. Kirishima swung his leg while Bakugou smashed his fist against the misty figure. Would it work? She had her doubts because of the fact that the guy was made out of mist. Then again, the blonde could not help but wonder how the man could eat? Or even wear clothes.

 _Boom._

"Not if we end you first," Bakugou declared.

"I bet that you didn't see that coming."

Did it work? There was no way of telling if the man had been affected by the attack. In fact when she thought about it, there was very little chance that it actually worked. From her memory of her fight with Zabuza, it was kind of hard to fight in the mist and there was no doubt that it would be harder when a person is made up of mist.

"That _**was**_ close," the villain declared and Naruto did not miss the relief in his voice. Close? This meant that the man could be affected by physical attacks but how could they know which one to attack? She placed her hands together into the familiar hand sign. Maybe if she made an overwhelming number of clones then they could find out his weak spot. "Yes, you might be might be students but you might be one of the best."

"All of you get back!" Thirteen yelled.

The blond-haired girl could only watch with horror as half of her classmates were wrapped around a dark shadow. Her hands began to tremble when the shadows disappeared and half of her classmates were gone. For a moment, she felt the Kyuubi's chakra leaking out of her but she squashed it before it could get felt. This was not the time for her to make the same mistake again.

Did the bastard kill them?

She bit the inner corner of her cheek.

"Where is everyone? Can we confirm their locations?" Iida yelled.

Mezo turned the tip of his tentacle to an ear. "They have been scattered but they are all in the facility."

"Physical attacks are no good," Sero pointed out. "This guy's quirk is too tough to handle."

How do you defeat someone that has no form? She frowned and twisted her head to look at their teacher, who was defeating the villains like they were some flies. Who was more important? Does she try to distract the mist guy? Or does she try to help the teacher? Maybe she could do both. Licking her dried lips, she placed her hands together into a familiar hand sign.

Was the man a pervert?

"What the hell are you doing, Uzumaki?" Sero asked.

"When I give the sign, I want Iida to close his eyes and run like the wind and I want him to get some help," Everyone blinked their eyes at her words and the blond-haired girl curled her lips into a smile. "If we are lucky then the bastard is going to get distracted by what I'm about to do."

"Distracted?"

"Well I presume that since he is so proper that he is a closet pervert."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

Naruto didn't reply instead she produced several of her clones. Each one of them had a grin and the girl knew that the clones understood what her plan was. It had been two years since she last used this technique, two years since she used it as a prank but desperate times called for desperate measures.

"Harem no Jutsu!" She yelled.

"Young lady, don't you have any shame!" Thirteen yelled as her clones transformed to a sexier version of herself. Naruto could only shrug her shoulders and watched in satisfaction as her clones tackled the villain, who stood there in shock.

"Run Iida!" She barked at her classmate, who had a slight tickle of blood running down his nose. Ochako slapped their class president on the head, snapping him out of his thoughts. The blue-haired boy nodded his head and run full speed ahead, giving her a nod of thanks for giving him the chance to call for help.

She dispersed the clones and stared at the mist guy, who was slowly getting out of the shock. Right now, there was an opportunity to help their teacher with the battle.

"What kind of girl doesn't respect herself!" The mist guy finally yelled.

Naruto snorted. "The girl who knows the kind of man that you are and I am also the girl that is going to kick all these villain's asses."

With those words, the blond-haired girl jumped into the main arena, where their teacher was still going through the villains like a cat playing with his prey. She did her job in sending someone that could help them escape but now it was her turn to help their teacher beat these people up.

She was going to show those villains, why it was a bad idea to mess them up.

* * *

Ochako could only watch in amazement as her classmate defeated those villains like they were pest. How could Uzumaki do this? Wasn't her classmate scared? She knew that the girl was amazing since she had the highest score in the entrance exam but doing well in the exam, did not mean that she could go into battle like it was something normal.

"Uzumaki is terrifying," Sero declared as their classmate dodged a villain's arm and smashed her hand against the man's chest. The brown-haired girl glanced at her classmate, who had faint red marks on his upper lips. It really did not surprise her since Naruto did use a technique that would cause any sane boy to bleed in his nose. "We barely graduated from middle school and here she is, defeating these villains like they are nothing."

"It is because the girl got experience," Thirteen said as Aizawa wrapped his scarf around the villain.

"How do you know?" Ochako asked.

The hero did not answer immediately instead his eyes were fixed on their classmate, who barely flinch as a large villain towed over her. Despite the fact that the man looked like a mountain compared to their tiny classmate, the girl did a headlock with the man and sent him flying to the wall.

"The way that Uzumaki fight and her confidence shows someone that has experience with fighting villains," Thirteen pointed to Naruto's stance. "Most beginners would be shaking in their feet or would have made more careless mistakes. The girl is still fighting like a mountain and none of the other villains can keep up with her. In fact, her speed is even greater than Eraserhead."

"You think that she is better than Aizawa-sensei?" Mezo asked.

Thirteen grimaced. "It is hard to tell but she is not a novice that much I can confirm. I think that with more training, the girl could surpass a lot of pro-heroes. Now I can see why she kept insisting to fight with Eraserhead but it is still reckless of her to do this."

Uzumaki was not the type of girl that was reckless, Ochako thought to herself as she stared at her classmate that was going through the villains like a tornado. From her battle with the girl, it had been obvious that all of her actions were calculated. She made traps when no one thought that she would and she kept the strength of her quirk a secret. It just made no sense for her to be reckless.

In fact, Deku always pointed out that their classmate was very calculative when it suited her. She never spoke about her quirk to Deku or showed it to him because she knew that he would analysis its strength and weakness. This was what her friend presumed and looking at their classmate, she agreed with him.

"If she is experienced then why did she join the Hero Course? She could have tried to apply for the provisional hero license exam without being in school."

"I overheard from Bakugou talking to Uzumaki about her reason for coming to this school," Ochako admitted, glancing at her relaxed classmate. Despite the many villains that she was defeating, the girl was not even breaking a sweat. "Their teacher was not going to accept her decision of working in a café and that he was willing to evoke it if it meant that she went to high school."

"Well I'm glad that he said those words," Sero declared as Naruto locked her legs around another villain's head and twisted it like it was a jar lid.

Ochako agreed because if it was not for Naruto then they would have been screwed over.

* * *

With the number of villains decreasing, Naruto began to notice that there was one villain that seemed to be standing by the side. Was he the mastermind of this whole stupidity? The blond-haired girl could not help but wonder as she did a side-kick to the henchman. She rolled her head to the left, grabbed hold of the other villain's arm and sent him flying to the air. No, the guy seemed to young to do this but then again what did she know.

In the words of this part of the world, she was a child soldier.

"You're the boss?" Aizawa-sensei asked, sending his scarf towards the young man, who seemed to be muttering to himself. The young man grabbed hold of the scarf but that did not put her teacher off. Instead, the hero was running towards him, ducking the attack of the last remaining villain before elbowing him in the stomach.

"It is hard to tell when you are scampering around, but there are moments when your hair falls in front of your eyes," the man said and to Naruto's disappointment, the villain had grabbed hold of her teacher's elbow. There was a chance that the man could attack her teacher. "Every time you finish a given move, your max duration get shorter and shorter."

To her horror, her teacher's elbow was slowly starting to disintegrate. Shit, his quirk allowed him to disintegrate people? She grimaced and readied herself to fight the man. How could someone have such a dangerous quirk? God, how the hell did that man find out of his quirk? She could only imagine how messed up, it would have been for him when he discovered it.

She smashed her fist against the approaching villain and then stared at the villain in front of her.

"Your quirk isn't good for long, group battles?" The man pointed out. "This is kinda different from your usual work isn't it? You specialize in quick sneak attacks yet you jumped right into this fight in the hopes of making the kid feel safe. By the way hero, I'm not the boss here."

Just as soon as he finished declaring those words, a large monster appeared behind her teacher. There was no words that could be used to describe how ugly it was but there was one thing that Naruto was certain about, it was the fact that it was not human. If anything, it had a human body but with an exposed brain and a mouth that reminded her of a beak.

She could hear the screams from her classmate and turning her head around, Naruto could see Thirteen being ripped apart. Right next to her, she could hear another scream. Taking a deep breath, the girl turned her body around and watched in horror as the monster grabbed hold of her teacher and twisted his arm around.

"Run Uzumaki!"

' _What can the jinchuuriki do? She couldn't even bring that Uchiha back!"_

Could she even defeat that monster? She couldn't even bring back her best-friend. How the hell could she even think of protecting him? She felt tears building up in her eyes. What the hell was she suppose to do? She wasn't strong enough to deal with this shit. Why the hell did she think that she could do this? She felt bile coming up her throat as the man began to twist his arm.

She should run for safety. She should not allow herself to even consider, saving him. She could not even save her best friend from a pedophile. What the hell makes her think that she could do this? She was not meant to be a hero.

"I'm sorry."

With those words, the blond-haired girl channeled her chakra into her fist and smashed it against the monster's head, freeing her teacher from the monster. She placed her hands into a familiar hand-sign and a clone appeared. She might not have been able to save her teacher and she might be weak.

Yet she could not abandon someone that needed saving.

" _ **You chose the wrong person to piss off**_ ," Naruto felt the Kyuubi chakra leaking out of her and for the first time in two years, she embraced the demon. " _ **Let me show you why you should be fucking terrified of a demon."**_

She smashed her hands against the monster's chest, punching and kicking it while it tried to grab hold of her. Cracking a smile, the young girl grabbed hold of the monster's arm, twisted it around before smashing it down to the ground. She twisted her head away when the villain tried to grab hold of her, before punching him on the face.

" **I will fucking kill you for hurting our teacher,"** the blonde yelled, continuing to punch the monster in the face. She blinked her eyes when the monster smashed his hand on her stomach and without thinking, she spit out some blood.

Rubbing her mouth, Naruto slammed her head against the monster's head before twisting its head. She kept punching the monster, hoping that she inflicted the same amount of pain that she made her teacher face. She barely flinched when the thing smashed his large fist against her stomach, tearing through her skin and muscles to form a hole.

"How the hell is she still fighting? There is a hole in her stomach!"

She kicked the monster in the shins and watched in satisfaction as the monster tumbled down to the ground.

" _ **You were the fool that decided to attack the wrong group of student,"**_ She declared, twisting her head to look at the villain. " _ **Your first mistake was to think that a former kunoichi like me could not handle the Nomu. Your second mistake was making me pissed off and your final mistake was attacking my friends and teacher.**_ "

"No one mentioned that there was a student that could be stronger than All Might," the villain complained. "We should have brought more Nomu if there was a kid that could do this. We need to escape from here."

The blond-haired girl waited till the villains were gone before allowing herself to relax.

She wasn't that useless.

That was her last thought before she closed her eyes.

* * *

A/N: Please review and tell me what you think. I am sorry for not making the fight scene better but I am not very good when it comes to fight scenes.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: I want to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows as well as everyone that reviewed this story.**

* * *

" _Why didn't you save me? I needed you Naruto."_

Naruto sat up straight and clutched the injury that her former best friend gave her. It was a dream, she reminded herself. Sasuke never demanded for her help and he made it very clear to her that she meant nothing to him. He made it clear that she was someone that he could easily discard. She took in several deep breaths and looked at her surroundings.

This wasn't her apartment.

What the hell happened? The memories of her fight with the villains flooded into her mind and the blond-haired girl groaned as she realized that she accepted chakra from the beast inside of her. Didn't she made a promise to herself that it was never happening again? She slapped herself. How the hell could she live a normal life now that she showed everyone, the monster inside of her.

"It is good to see that you are awake, young Uzumaki," Naruto blinked her eyes and looked up to see All Might staring at her with concern. "You gave everyone a scare when you fainted, but that was expected since you just took down a lot of villains."

"All Might!"

"I shouldn't praise you for being reckless," All Might informed her as he took a seat beside her bed. "And you are going to get a scolding from Eraserhead as soon as he is healed from his injuries, but you saved everyone."

"No one is hurt?"

The superhero shook his head. "Everyone is safe and sound although some of your classmates have some minor injuries. However, their injuries can't compare to the one that you got in your stomach which begs me to ask…what were you thinking when you decided to continue fighting with a hole in your stomach?"

"There was no one to protect the others," Naruto admitted. "And I couldn't let that bastard have the chance to hurt them so I thought that I can withstand through the pain and continue fighting."

The blond-haired man nodded and looked at her with such old eyes that the blonde wondered if he was trying to stare through her soul. If it wasn't for the fact that she could still feel some pain in her back, she would be squirming under his eyes. She hadn't done anything wrong by deciding to continue to fight. She needed to save her classmates because that was what a hero did.

She needed to prove to herself that she was capable of saving people.

"Uzumaki, do you know how scared your classmates were when they realized that you had an injury to your stomach?" Naruto bit her lips and shook her head. "Do you know how concern everyone was to realize that a fifteen-year-old girl decided that she had no choice but to act like the hero. That the same girl had no concern about her life. Do you stop to think what would everyone's reaction would have been if you died from your wounds?"

"Does it even matter?" All Might narrowed his eyes at her words and the blond-haired girl gave him a bitter smile. "If I died then there wouldn't be anyone to mourn for me. My mum and dad died on the same day as I was born and the man that I considered like my grandfather was murdered two years ago."

It wasn't like she had friends that gave a shit about her. Sakura made it clear that she was useless since she couldn't even bring back Sasuke. The council made it clear that they wanted to exile her for her blunder and blamed her for the injuries that her friends had. It was not like she meant the world to anyone.

Maybe Jiraya would mourn but he would get back up and act like nothing ever happened.

"Did you take the time to look at your hospital room?"

Blinking her eyes, Naruto twisted her head around to look at her hospital room. She hadn't realized it but her room was filled with flowers. Was that a card? She chewed on her lower lip and took the card from the bedside table. She opened the card, feeling her lips twitch at the bad drawing that Kirishima made of her and began to read the thank you that were scattered throughout the card.

Weren't they scared of her?

How could they still look at her? How could they be willing to do this?

"Why did they write this?"

"You saved their lives," All Might reminded her. "If it wasn't for you then there was no telling about the damage that they would have faced from that monster. You managed to defeat the monster even when Eraserhead could not. You saved your teacher from having an even worse injury and for that, everyone is thanking you."

"But aren't they scared? I lost control."

The blond hero did not answer her and stared at her with understanding eyes. What did he understand? Had he ever been called a monster? Had he ever been hated because of the thing inside of him? He could never understand her pain.

"From their description, you turned terrifying and they were scared but they also knew that you were being emotional," Naruto blinked her eyes and the man stared at her. "The energy manipulation…it isn't really your quirk is it? The thing that appeared is your quirk."

She bit her lips at her teacher's words. She could lie and tell him that was her quirk. She could continue with the charade but there was a part of her that knew better. A part of her knew that it would be stupid for her to continue her lie. Those villains knew that she was a kunoichi and if there were really planning to bring the hero world down then they would form alliances.

She could not take the chance.

"I don't actually have a quirk," All Might raised his eyebrow and the blond-haired girl licked her dried lips. "I was posing my chakra as a quirk but if quirks were like Kekkai Genkai then it won't be considered a quirk since everyone in my part of the world have it."

"You are from the Elemental Countries? You're a kunoichi? " All Might demanded.

Naruto nodded and the man looked at her with pity. Was he pitying her because she came from a world, where kids like her were considered adults. Did he pity her because she was a child solider? Or did he know about the shit that she was forced to go through. She run her hands through her hair and looked out at the window, where there were several birds chirping.

"I was a kunoichi but I gave it up when I decided to come here," Naruto admitted and in the corner of her eye, she swore that she saw several figures hiding behind the door. It must be her imagination.

"Why did you give it up?"

"Because they were going to exile me for not doing my job properly," All Might frowned at her response and the blond-haired girl smiled bitterly. "I had a mission to rescue my teammate from a man that you would consider a pedophile. My teammate didn't want to come back home and well I decided to fight him."

She closed her eyes and allowed herself to be swept back to that terrible day. Till this day, his hollow eyes haunted her. Had it been her fault for not recognizing the fact that he was going to abandon them? Maybe if she hadn't been so self-centered then this would not have happened. If she had offered to be his friend earlier then none of this would have happened.

"You failed to bring him back."

"I didn't just failed to bring him back, I nearly died trying to bring my best friend back home and I lost control of the demon inside of me," All Might looked at her with horror and the blond-haired girl grimaced. "The council wasn't happy with me and I overheard them arguing with the village leader about throwing me out of the village, because I can't control it."

"So you decided to run?"

She closed her eyes and allowed herself to cry for the first time in years. "They weren't the only reason for my decision to leave home. I never belonged there. Do you know until I was five that I never knew what my name was? If it wasn't for the Third Hokage, I would have thought that my name was Monster."

Her teacher looked at her in horror and the blond-haired girl swore that she heard a gasp from outside.

"No one ever cared about the girl that was forced to have the burden of carrying a demon inside of her," Naruto sniffed. "Whenever I wanted to make friends with the other kids, the parents would take them away. Do you know what it is like going out of your small apartment and being greeted with such cold eyes? Do you know how scary it can be when it feels like that you don't have the right to live?"

"Young Uzumaki…"

"Do you know why they look at me like that? It is because the Fourth Hokage placed the demon that destroyed Konoha inside of me," All Might blinked his eyes and the blond-haired girl sniffed. "I understand why he did it because there was no other kid born that day, but it wasn't like I asked for this. I just wanted to be loved and so I thought that by being a kunoichi, they would start to love me or the very least respect me."

Why was she telling him this? She should have kept her mouth shut about these things but All Might didn't look at her with those eyes. He didn't make her feel like a monster. He praised her for her use of the Kyuubi even though everyone in Konoha would have been angry with her.

Why could these people be understanding?

Why?

She blinked her eyes when she felt a pair of muscular arms wrapped around her. The blond-haired girl sniffed and sobbed, allowing herself to become weak in front of the man that everyone called the best superhero. It had been so long since someone hugged her like this after knowing the truth. The last time she had been hugged was when Jiraya dropped her off here.

Jiraya had tried to make her happy before she came here. He had taken her to many places in the Elemental Countries while he helped her find a way to escape from her problems. She never thanked him for that. She never told him that she appreciated him for what he did. She never told him that she was fine.

She felt like the worse person in the world.

"First of all you are not a monster," All Might informed her. "If anything, you are a hero to your village because if it wasn't for you then that monster would be causing damage to your village. Second of all, what happened that day was not your fault. If you lost control of the thing inside of you then it is because you were invested in the mission. Thirdly, it was your village's fault for not seeing the bright girl that you are."

She couldn't stop herself from crying another set of tears.

"Thank you."

Naruto didn't know if she was thanking him for seeing her as a person or for telling her that she was a hero to her village. She didn't know if she was thanking him for letting her cry like a baby or if she was thanking him for hugging her and letting her have a breakdown.

All she knew was that she was grateful for having the teacher accept her from the very beginning.

* * *

"Did you talk to our student about her actions?"

Toshinori stared down at the principal, who had a grim look on his face. He couldn't blame him since Uzumaki would have been dead if it wasn't for the fact that she could regenerate her skin. It had been so reckless of that girl to continue fighting with such a serious wound but it was her recklessness that saved the other students.

"Yes and we might need to change some facts in her file," Nezu raised his eyebrow and the hero bit his lips. Even though it had been an hour since he left the girl, he still felt so angry for what a kid had been forced to go through. She was only fifteen but she faced more things then teenagers, her age had went through.

"What facts?"

"Naruto Uzumaki is from the Elemental Countries," the principal blinked his eyes and stared at him with wide eyes. It would have been funny if it wasn't for the fact that he had to tell his student that she wasn't a monster. What kind of world were they living in? It should be forbidden to make a child feel unsafe in her own home.

Though it seemed like if there was a rule then it was ignored since they saw her as a demon.

"Elemental Countries? I should have known from her last name," Nezu commented. "Most of the Uzumaki in the country are refugees but why now? The last set of Uzumaki refugee came twenty-four years ago."

Refugee? He had known that Uzumaki was a common name but he hadn't known that they were refugee. Did they come from the same place as his student? Did they also have to go through the same things as his young student? It made him want to hurl if that was the case. It was bad enough that his

"She was being abused for something that was not her fault," He informed the humanoid mink. Toshinori clenched his hands into a ball of fist as he recalled the pain of his student's eyes. "It is a miracle that the girl hadn't decided to become a villain. The fact that they wanted to exile her for something that wasn't her fault…"

"Exile? What did the child do?"

All Might grimaced and began to tell the principle of the story that Naruto had told him. He informed the man of all the things that their student had been forced to go through. He hoped that the mink knew what to do to help the girl because god knew that he felt hopeless. He had seen victims of abuse but not to the scale that the girl had been forced to go through.

"That is a problem," Nezu muttered. "It is a miracle that the girl decided to become a hero with the way those humans treated her."

There was some truth behind the man's words. If it had been anyone else then they would have turned for a life of crime. They would have grown bitter but that tiny girl just decided to leave. She came to a place where there was uncertainty just to have a better life. He wished that this had not happen to such a young child.

"I just can't understand how their leader would tell his village people that the girl carried the thing that destroyed their homes," All Might muttered.

"He was naïve," Nezu poured him a cup of a tea. "He probably thought that by telling them then they would respect the child and care for her. The exact opposite happened instead and the girl suffered for it."

The blond hero thinned his lips and nodded his head in agreement. Their student suffered because of the actions of her village. The girl was reckless because she thought that no one would care if she died and that disgusted him. A fifteen-year-old girl should never experience those things. She should have been enjoying life, should have been smiling and playing with kids that were her age.

She should have never doubt her right to live.

"What can we do to help her?"

"She will need to go and see a therapist to talk about her problems," Toshinori raised his eyebrow and this earned a sigh. "It will be kept hush up but the girl needs to see someone about what she was forced to endure. We will also need to see if she had any relatives in Japan but we have the Sports Festival to see if a family member will communicate with her."

Toshinori prayed to God that it would happen because a lonely child like Naruto needed all the family members that she could get.

* * *

"You had us worried sick!"

Naruto looked up from her book and stared at the door, where her whole class stood with a large teddy bear in front of them. Almost all of them had a relieved look on their faces as if they were really happy to see her alive. When was the last time a classmate looked at her like that? Sakura had cried and blamed her for Sasuke, not once being relieved that she was alive.

Her classmates had tears in their eyes and were carrying such a large teddy bear.

"I'm sorry?"

"You could have died, Uzumaki," Shoto stated as Tsuyu took a seat beside her. The blond-haired girl rubbed the back of her neck and avoided her friend's eyes. She knew it had been risky and it had been reckless of her as her teacher had pointed out earlier. It had been worth it at the time but the pain in everyone's eyes told her that they wouldn't want to see her get hurt.

"I'm sorry," Naruto muttered.

"Todoroki was just stating everyone's worries," Kirishima said. "You saved everyone from getting pummeled but it was scary to know that you were fighting the villains with a hole in your stomach."

Why weren't they talking about what she did? Why were they keeping quiet about it? Weren't they going to ask her about what she did? About what she released? She run her hands through her unbound hair. Usually, people would interrogate about those kind of things so why weren't they doing it? She flickered her eyes to Midoriya, who had a warm smile on his face, and then to Bakugou, who shot her a scowl.

"Why aren't you asking me about what I did? Aren't you terrified about what I did?"

"It was scary," Ochako admitted. "But we also know that you wouldn't have done it if you weren't emotional. It was the first time that we have seen you with so much anger but it doesn't change the fact that you're our classmate."

"It was kind of cool how you told them that you would kill them for hurting us," Sero said. "We thought that you didn't like us all that much since you don't really try to communicate with us."

She did like her classmates but Naruto was terrified of being close to people. What if they were nothing but a lie? What if she got close to them and they would kill her? What if she got close and they betrayed her? This was her constant fear. It was not like she didn't want to communicate with them but the memories of her past was to hard for her to shake.

"I'm sorry for making you think like that."

"It doesn't really matter," Momo said. "What matters is that you are fine now, Uzumaki-san."

"Thank you…"

Everyone frowned at her and the blond-haired girl licked her lips as she formulate the words that would express her feelings. How could she thank them for showing concern for her? How could she ever tell them that their words meant a lot? If it had been anyone else, they would continue to be scared of her. They would try to avoid her but her classmates were willing to be around her.

They didn't mind the fact that she lost control.

"We should be the ones to thank you, Naruto," Midoriya spoke up. "If it wasn't for you then things would have gotten worse."

Most of her classmates nodded their heads in agreement but Todoroki and Bakugou. Her friend had a thoughtful look on his face as if he was wondering if there were more to her two words. Her blond-haired classmate had a scowl on his face but there was no anger in his scowls. If anything, the girl could tell from his twitchiness that her classmate wasn't comfortable.

She couldn't blame him because she felt uncomfortable with the amount of visitors that she had. She felt a tightness in her chest as she looked into the smiling faces of her classmates. They were happy to see her alive. They might not have known her for a long time but they cared for her. They cared enough to visit her for two days with gifts.

She felt tears burning in her eyes.

"Oh god! What do we do with a crying girl?" Kaminari yelled.

Naruto burst out laughing at her classmate's words while everyone groaned at his words.

Perhaps it was really time for her to contact Jiraya.

She needed to resume her training again because she finally found a new reason to grow stronger again.

* * *

A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter.


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: I want to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows.

* * *

"Did Naruto actually give you this letter? She summoned you? How did she look like to you?"

Gamakichi nodded his head and Jiraya stared down at the white envelope in his hands. It had been nearly three years since his goddaughter last talked to him. Was everything ok? He chewed on the inner corner of his cheek and steadied his hands. It should not terrify him to open a letter from his goddaughter but there were many things that could be happening to her.

"Naruto looked a little bit sick," Gamakichi admitted. "Then again, she did summon me in the middle of the night while she was in hospital."

"What!"

He sent the little girl there just to avoid that situation. If he had known that Naruto was going to just land herself in trouble again then he would have forced her to come with him in his journey. Still, what did his goddaughter do to land herself in the hospital? The girl could heal from almost any wound so how did she land herself in this position? He rubbed his forehead.

"Yeah Naruto was in a hospital but it seems like she has a lot of friends," Gamakichi said. "You should have seen the amount of flowers that she had in her room and the large teddy bear that they gave her."

Flowers? Teddy bears? The petite girl found friends and not just any friends, but friends that cared for her. Did any of her friends in Konoha gave her flowers? He couldn't remember seeing if anyone took the time to appreciate her. Maybe he had done the right thing for her. She might have been injured but there were couple of kids that cared for her.

Taking a deep breath, Jiraya opened the letter that Naruto gave Gamakichi. The first thing that stood out to him was the fact that there were several tears stains in the letter and that the girl improved her handwriting skills. Knitting his eyebrows, he began to read the letter that his only godchild sent him. The letter that must have been painful for her to write.

He blinked when the first words that Naruto wrote to him was apologizing for not contacting him. It was just like the girl to dedicate a whole paragraph to apologize to him. Did it hurt that she didn't tell him anything? Yes but Jiraya understood the state that Minato's daughter had been. As long as she was happy then he was content with the lack of contact.

Jiraya felt his lips twitched when the blond-haired girl told him about her last two years in that part of the world. Working in a café? Why didn't that surprise him? Naruto would never be the type of person that would be content with just studying. He knitted his eyebrows when the girl told him that she decided to become a hero, that she was going to a school dedicated to them.

Not just any school apparently, the best school for heroes.

She told him about how her middle school teacher pushed for her to continue her education and made a comment about how she would be good in the job. She informed him about the two boys from her middle school and how they reminded her of her and that Uchiha teammate of hers. It pained him that even far away from Konoha, the girl was still reminded of the past.

He smiled brightly when Naruto informed him that she wanted his help. She wanted him to continue her training and to help her reign in the demon inside of her. He thought that he would never get to hear those words from her but his goddaughter found life again.

She found that fire in her.

Now it was his turn to help her reach her dream.

* * *

 **(** _ **U.A High)**_

"Everyone! Homeroom is about to begin! Can everyone go back to your seats!"

Naruto felt her lips twitch at the sight of their panicking class president while Sero pointed out that Iida was the only one standing up. For the first time in her life, she missed being in school and seeing everyone. She used to dread the days of waking up early in the morning and seeing her classmates but her classmates were nothing like her old ones. They weren't scared of her and they visited her for a whole two days, giving her more presents than she ever gotten.

"Morning."

Everyone could only blink their eyes and gasp at the sight of the many bandages that were wrapped around his face. From her memory of the battle, their teacher had been wounded but not to the state that he needed so many bandages. She chewed on her bottom lip as the man wobbled to the platform, where he would begin to tell them about their plans for today. Was he also going to call her out for her actions?

All Might did mention that Aizawa-sensei was going to scold her.

"Are you okay, Sensei?" Ochako asked.

"My injuries aren't of any of your concerns." Their teacher informed them. "However, my concern is that one of my students decided to be a reckless idiot. Uzumaki! What the hell were you thinking when you decided to defeat that monster? Do you think that your life is so easily wasted? You are lucky that you were able to heal from your injuries because any other person would have been dead."

All Might hadn't been kidding when he said that Eraser Head was going to scold her for her actions. She rubbed the back of her neck as all of her classmates turned their head to give her a knowing look. Was everyone going to scold her for her actions? It seemed like everyone wanted to remind her just how lucky she was that she healed from the injuries. Then again, not many people in Konoha scolded her for her actions.

It felt nice that he was concern about her.

"Sorry."

"We are going to have a talk about your recklessness during your break." Aizawa-sensei promised. "As long as you are a student of this school, I will not approve of any reckless behavior even if your reckless behavior saved everyone's life."

Did they really think that she hadn't learnt her lesson? Naruto couldn't help but asked herself as their teacher turned his attention to her other classmates. Yes, it had been reckless of her but she thought that no one would care if she died. How was she supposed to know that they cared for her? It wasn't like she had people lining up to care for her. It wasn't like she had the experience of being cared for.

Oh god, it sounded depressing even for her.

"Now that I have got that out of the way, let us talk about your next fight." Their teacher declared, earning furrowed eyebrows from everyone. Slowly their furrowed eyebrows disappeared and smiles appeared on their faces, which made Naruto wonder if she was the only one confused. How could they figure out what he was talking about? She didn't understand what the hell was going on.

"The U.A Sport Fesitval is happening in two weeks," Aizawa informed them which earned crazed cheers from her classmates.

Why were they excited? Wasn't it like any other sport festival? Naruto asked herself as her classmates whispered excitedly to each other. It was something ordinary right? So why were they acting like it was the greatest thing in the world? She glanced at Todoroki, who had a thoughtful look on his face, and than to Momo, who seemed excited. Would it be stupid of her to say that she didn't know why it was such a big deal?

"Um…why is everyone excited about it?"

"Naru-chan, haven't you seen the U.A Sport Festival?" Tsuyu asked.

The blue-eyed girl shook her head. "I have no time to watch television."

"The Sport Festival is one of the biggest events in Japan," Aizawa-sensei explained to her. "Once upon a time, the world used to go crazy over the Olympics but this is no longer the case in Japan. Our U.A Sports Festival has taken the place of the Olympics for Japan."

Was it also broadcasted in other countries? Was there a possibility that it might appear in her village? She never had cable in her apartment in Konoha since she could never afford it. Companies always charged her high rates so it seemed stupid of her to try and get one. She had been lucky just to get television even if the shows in Konoha had been boring as hell. Honestly, who the hell wanted to see a boring romantic movie about the First Hokage and his wife?

Till this day, she never understood how her female classmates found it romantic.

"Naturally you will gain valuable experience and popularity if you are picked up by a famous hero," Aizawa-sensei informed them, snapping her from her train of thought. "However, you have a limited amount of time to show those Heroes, your determination and your abilities. You should try hard not to mess things up since this only happens once a year."

Naruto felt her lips twitching upwards as everyone gave their teacher a determined look.

"If you are serious about becoming a hero then this is an event that you can't miss."

It seemed like she should take this seriously then.

* * *

Aizawa had the urge to rip something apart as he stared at his most reckless student, who had her head down and her hands nearly folded on her lap. Until recently, he thought Midoriya and Bakugou were the most reckless students in his class but Uzumaki proved him wrong. The girl was a reckless fool. He did know from Toshinori that the girl had been mentally abused by the people in her village and he knew that she was a child solider, but it should not be to this level.

"Uzumaki, do you know why I told you that we needed to talk about your recklessness?"

"Because I could have died." She answered softly. "I didn't know that anyone cared about me until All Might told me."

He nodded and stared at the blond girl, who curled her hands into a tight fist. He should scold her even more for the reckless behavior, but it was obvious from her tense shoulders that she was apologetic. Was her behavior truly because she thought no one would care about her death? Had no one in her home told her that she was important?

It made him want to hurl.

"That is not the only reason that I wanted to talk to you about your recklessness." She blinked her eyes and Aizawa rubbed his neck. "Your recklessness and your history had made everyone decided that you need to go and see a therapist."

"Why do I need to go to therapy? I'm fine."

"If you were mentally stable then we wouldn't be in this situation," he informed her. "You had already given hints to All Might that you have no regard to your life but it became clear in that fight with the monster. The fact that you told him that the treatment you face told us that you need to talk to someone because you can't live like this."

"Aizawa-sensei?"

"Not only are you a child solider, but you are also a young girl that was abused by the people who should have cared for you." The girl gulped and he looked right into her blue eyes. "Listen to me Naruto, you have nothing to be ashamed about. There are many children out there that have been abused but when we find a case like this, we take them to therapy."

"Why?"

"Because you won't ever properly recover from your experience," he informed her. "I don't know about your village way of dealing with kids like you, but we want you to recover. We want to see you reach your full potential and you will never reach your full potential if you are reckless. You can never be a great hero if you bottle your feelings up. If you want to heal from your emotional scars then you need to start talking and start letting people in."

"I am fine."

Then why did you look like you want to break down? Aizawa asked himself as the girl repeated those words to herself. Who was the girl trying to fool? Did she really believe that she was fine? Any person would have gone bad shit crazy if they experienced the things that she had. No one could ever repress the pain of being rejected especially not for something that they never asked for.

"Naruto, you know that it is okay to cry, right?" The girl opened her mouth to protest but he was not having it today. "No one will judge you if you want to continue to cry your heart out because what you went through wasn't easy. It wasn't fair for you to be burden with such a huge responsibility and no one will blame you if you want to curse them or get angry with them. You are only human, you understand me? It isn't wrong for you to show emotions."

"It was my emotions that got me into this mess," the girl admitted. "The monster can gain a little bit of control when I am emotional…especially when I am angry."

"Do you really think bottling up your feelings will fix the issue?" She shook her head and Aizawa sighed as he realized that it would not be difficult to talk to her about this topic. "If you know that bottling up your emotions won't work then you need to figure out another solution."

"I won't ever use that monster's powers."

"There will be a day when you need to use it," He informed her. "You can try and try but there will be a day when your physical powers won't be enough to save the people that you care about. You need to confront the monster and you need to figure out a way that you don't lose control. It is one of the reasons why we think that you need to go to therapy besides the abuse you went through."

"Sensei…"

"Just go to one session and if you think that it is pointless then we will stop and find you another therapist." Naruto opened her mouth to protest and he narrowed his eyes at her. "Uzumaki, we won't let this issue rest because we want you to get better and we want you to live a life filled with no regrets."

The girl sucked in her cheeks but did not protest at his words.

They could not afford to fail this young girl.

* * *

Uzumaki was acting strange, Shouto thought to himself as his classmate shoved her books into her bag as if they were the worst thing in the world. She had been acting almost like a zombie since her talk with Aizawa. She barely answered everyone and there was a far away look in her eyes. It was almost like she was in another place and another time. It was a good thing that Their other classmates hadn't noticed it or else they would be pestering her about it.

"Uzumaki, are you okay?" The blond-haired girl stopped shoving her books and turned her head to look at him. The conflicting emotions in his friend's eyes told him that the girl was at war with herself and he wondered what did their teacher said to her when it came to her recklessness. It was not like Uzumaki to feel so frustrated with them.

"I'm fine, Todoroki," Uzumaki answered.

Shouto thinned his lips at her response. He might not be the best person when it came to emotions but he could tell that she wasn't fine. If Uzumaki was fine then she wouldn't act so jumpy, which made him question about what exactly did Aizawa tell her. He glanced at his other classmates, noticing how Tsuyu was eyeing Naruto with concern.

It seemed like he wasn't the only one to notice her strange behavior.

"Uzumaki, you know if something is bothering you then you can talk to someone about it," Shouto informed her. "You know that the whole class won't have any problems with listening to you about your problems. You are not alone, Uzumaki."

His classmate could only stare at him as she tried to process what he just said to her. He didn't know what happened to Uzumaki and he could only guess the level of abuse that she had, but Todoroki wanted her to know that she did have the class. Everyone decided to come with him because she was their classmate. She might not know it but she was like their rock, since she took action when all the other heroes were injured.

"Thank you."

Shouto felt a tight feeling in his chest as Naruto directed a small smile in his way. With the way her eyes were closed and the smile playing on her lips, he could say that the girl was calm and relax. If someone was to ask him how to describe the girl's smile then he could only say that it was like having the sun shining down on you.

That smile on Uzumaki's face made her beautiful.

He blinked his eyes when the girl flushed a light red and he wondered what was making the girl look like a tomato. Todoroki tilted his head when he noticed that several of the boys were giving him a smooth look while the girls could only giggle. What was happening? Did something happened that he didn't know about?

"So, Todoroki thinks Uzumaki is beautiful?" Kaminari said, giving them a teasing smile.

Did he just say his thoughts out loud? From the way that Uzumaki was flushing an even brighter red told him that he said his thoughts out loud. He could only blink his eyes as the blond-haired girl put her hands on her face as if she was trying to cover her whole face up. Was Uzumaki shy? She did know that she was pretty right?

"I…"

"He was just joking, Sparky," Naruto muttered, placing her bag over her shoulder. "I'm not what he claims me to be."

"But I'm not joking," Todoroki said, knitting his eyebrows together. "You are very pretty."

The blond-haired girl could only gap at him before turning an even brighter red. Briefly, he wondered how red could his classmate turn because her face was turning redder than a tomato. Also why did Uzumaki think he was joking? Didn't she know that she was pretty? He stared at the blond-haired girl, who stood up from her seat.

The blond-haired girl groaned.

"What the hell is going on?" Naruto said, putting her hand on her hips.

"You can't tell Whiskers? They are scoping out the competition." Bakugou said, standing beside her. "Since we are the kids who survived the villain attack and you are the girl that defeated them. It only makes sense that they want a look before the Sports Festival."

Uzumaki sighed. "Well can they move the fuck out of the way? I got a part-time job to go to and I can't afford to be late. It is bad enough that I missed two whole days of work because of those stupid villains."

"So you are the girl that defeated them? You don't look like much." The boy scoffed but Uzumaki did not rise to his bait. "Are all the kids in the hero course like this one? Because I'm a little disillusioned if this is what you are offering. Those of us who didn't make the Hero Course are stuck in General Studies and the other tracks. Did you know that? Do you know how many of us want your position?"

Uzumaki shrugged her head. "No but if you want me to pity you then go somewhere else. The students of the Hero Course worked their asses to get here. It is not our fault that you didn't try to find ways to overcome the weakness of your quirks."

"Arrogant,' the boy muttered. "You know that depending on the results of this sports festival that they might consider transferring us to the Hero Course and I understand that the _**reverse**_ is also possible for you. So, scoping out the competition? For a general studies kid like me…. this will be the perfect chance to knock you off your high horse. You can consider this a declaration of war."

Uzumaki curled her lips into a smirk. "Then consider your declaration of war accepted, Ferret. Now move and let me go to my job because unlike you lucky bastards, I have other things to worry about instead of the Sports Festival."

With those words his classmate disappeared, leaving their other classmates to gap at her behavior.

* * *

 **A/N: Please review and tell me what you think.**


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: I would like to thank the reviews and for all the people that added this story to their favourites and follows.

* * *

 **(A week later)**

"Shouldn't you be preparing for the Sports Festival, Naruto? You know I won't mind if you decided to take the whole week off."

Naruto curled her lips into a thin smile as her boss frowned at her. For the past week, her boss had been giving her very 'subtle' hints about what should be her priority. If she was not cleaning the dishes then the woman would comment about it while she was serving the customers. Even when she was changing into her normal clothes, the woman would comment about it.

"I got it under control."

Her boss raised her eyebrow. "Naruto, do I need to remind you that everyone is going to be watching you and seeing your stuff or that my café is on the line here."

The blond-haired girl swirled her head at her boss' words. What did she mean that the café was on the line here? What did she mean that her only safe heaven was on the line? Naruto took several deep breaths as she tried to reign in the storm of emotions that threatened to consume her.

She must not release her temper on her boss because Naruto was no Sakura.

"Boss, what did you do?"

The middle-aged woman laughed nervously and fiddled with her hands as she avoided looking into her eyes. The fact that her boss was acting like a little girl, who had her hand in the cookie jar, worried the teenager. In the two years that Naruto worked under the woman, not once had she seen the woman act like this. Confident and bubbly yes but not nervous.

"I might have made a bet with one of my poker buddies about you."

"I thought you said that you will stop using the café as a gambling chip!"

The woman rubbed the back of her neck. "He was betting a lot of yen since he heard from one of his customers that one of the Heroes' kids was in the Sport Festival! And well I couldn't resist…you know I am weak when it comes to money."

"So, you betted the cafe that your deceased husband build for you because you wanted some extra cash?"

"Now you are making me sound like a bitch." The woman grumbled. "You should be happy that I have confidence in you."

The girl could gape at her boss' childish words and wondered not for the first time if her boss was as really as old as she claimed to be. How could someone bet their own workplace? Their heaven? The woman always reminiscence about how her husband worked so hard to build this place for her. She always went into a dazed as she talked with a lovesick sigh about how the man had been willing to accomplish her wish.

She never thought that the woman would make such a risky gamble. Her boss loved her deceased husband to the point that Naruto wanted to barf about the stories between them. The stories about them were the kind of stories that made a person queasy and almost made you believe that true love exist.

This just proved to Naruto that there was no such thing as true love.

* * *

 **(The next day)**

" _I'm not joking."_

Naruto felt her face heating up as she recalled Todoroki's words from last week. It had been a whole week since the boy accidently informed everyone that she looked beautiful with a smile on her face. It had been a week and she still could not look at the boy in the eye. Was this how Hinata felt whenever she looked at Kiba? She felt like an idiot for teasing the girl about her crush.

She rubbed the back of her neck and twisted her head away as Shouto furrowed his eyebrows at her. Why was she embarrassed? It was normal for a friend to compliment their friend, right? It should not make her feel like an idiot. Yet, her stomach had a pit of butterflies as she recalled the honesty in his eyes when he told her that she was pretty.

No one really called her pretty.

"Uzumaki, did my words from last week make you feel uncomfortable?" Shouto asked her as everyone waited for Aizawa to enter the classroom. The younger boy had a small frown in his face and the blonde felt a sense of dread as the butterflies came back. "I was only telling the truth about your appearance…I didn't mean for my words to upset you or to cause you to avoid me."

Was he serious when he said that he never had fangirls? Naruto asked herself as she willed for her blush to go away. How could no one stalked him? He was polite, kind and good-looking to bit and he actually knew how to compliment people. He also had the naïve thing going for him. There was no way in hell that he didn't have any fangirls.

"Your words didn't upset me." She finally said when she felt the heat in her face died away. "It just took me by surprise."

Shouto frowned at her but did not dare to question her about why it took her by surprise. It was not like she could tell him that no one called her pretty. Everyone used to comment about how she acted like a boy or about the way that she ate. The girls would make fun of the whisker marks in her cheek, telling her that no one would think that a girl like her was pretty.

She curled her hands into a tight ball of fist as the memories of the past washed over her. Monster. Loveless. Ugly. Those were all the words that the girls had used to describe her. This had been their bullets whenever she made fun of their love of Sasuke. They would taunt those words as they reminded her that there was very little chance of someone loving her.

She shoved those memories away and stared at the whiteboard. Love was not something that she should be striving for. Naruto was going to become a hero. She was going to show the world that Naruto Uzumaki was not some girl that allowed her past to consume her. She was going to prove to the council that they had been fools for considering exiling her.

"Uzumaki-san…"

Naruto blinked her eyes and turned her head to look at Momo. The Vice-President was a very pretty girl with her onyx colored eyes and long black hair. Sometimes when she looked at the girl, she wondered if this was what Sasuke would have looked like if he had been a born a girl. However, her classmate was no Uchiha. Despite her limited interaction with her, the girl had shown that she was a warm person.

"Naruto." Her classmate frowned and the blonde smiled tightly. "I don't actually like being called by my last name."

"Can I call you Naru-chan?"

Naru-chan? Was it going to become a habit for everyone to call her by that nickname? It started with Itsuka and then Tsuyu had decided to call her that after USJ. Now it was Momo's turn to ask. Until she came to this part of the world, Hinata had been the only one that called her by that nickname. Sakura had refused to call her by that nickname and Sasuke would rather die than call her by that name.

"I don't mind, Momo-chan."

"Naru-chan, will you like to sit with Jirou and me?" The blond-haired girl tilted her head and Momo smiled. "We would like to get to know you better."

The blue-eyed girl chewed on her bottom lip as her brain processed what her classmate asked of her. Sit with them during their lunch? Was she ready for such a big step? It was true that she knew now that they cared for her but it still felt too soon for her. She felt her head throb as the memories of her childhood flooded through her mind.

As a little girl, she wanted so badly to have friends and she did a lot of stupid things in the hopes of making friends. She tried studying like crazy, only to realize that most of the teachers gave her papers that were not her level. She skipped class with the boys because she thought that they might be the only ones that were willing to be friends with her.

She hadn't done anything and these girls wanted to get to know her.

"I will be happy to sit with you guys."

* * *

(Lunch time)

"So Uzumaki…"

"Naruto."

The blond-haired girl could only curl her lips into a large smile as her classmate knitted her eyebrows together. It was starting to become an annoying habit for her to correct everyone when they called her by her last name. If only she had told everyone from the very beginning that she hated being called by her last name. Todoroki and Iida were different since the two of them did not feel comfortable enough to call her by her first name.

"How come you don't spend a lot of time with Bakugou or Midoriya?" Jirou asked her. "The three of you came from the same middle school but the two of them don't seemed to know you all that well."

Naruto thinned her lips before swirling the contents of her ramen. So that was their first question? She mused to herself as she stared at the ripples in her food. It was kind of logical. The two boys should know her very well but she never allowed herself to bond with any of the kids in her middle school. It was true that she protected Izuku but she did not actually know him, all that well.

She hated Bakugou's guts.

"I never had time to bond with the kids in my middle school," she admitted. "I was always too busy studying or working to even consider hanging out with any of them. The only interaction that I have with any of my classmates were when we had group work or when I had to rescue Midoriya from Bakugou."

"So you never went out with your friends?"

"If you asked Explosive Head then he will tell you that I didn't have any friends." They frowned at her response but the girl could only shrug her shoulders. She ignored the voices from the other students and looked at her two classmates. "I used to try and make friends with the other girls in my elementary school but it didn't work out for me."

Momo frowned. "Why?"

"Because they thought I was competition for their crush," Naruto admitted. "There was a boy in my elementary school that was thought to be the cutest boy in our whole school. The other girls would try to stalk him and declare their love for him while I just insulted him because he had everyone's attention. I never understood why they thought that he was good looking since he had the personality of an ass."

Her classmates blinked their eyes like an owl as they processed her words. So she was not the only one that found their behavior weird? Almost all the girls in the Academy had called her a liar for not thinking of her teammate in that way. Only Hinata hadn't found it weird but the girl had a crush on Kiba, which was smarter since the boy was nice.

"So, they didn't become friends with you because they thought that you were trying to get their crush attention by insulting him?" Jirou summarized.

Naruto nodded and that earned chuckles from her two classmates. The joyous laughter of the girls brought a lightness to her heart and it made her wonder if maybe that it was possible for her to be friends with other girls. Itsuka might be her friend but she did not get to see her often. Being the Class President meant that her friend had a lot of duties and could not always afford to spend time with her.

It also did not help that her classmates had a stupid feud with them or so Itsuka informed her.

"The poor guy," Momo muttered. "If they were stalking him then he must have never had a moment of peace."

Naruto laughed. "It was so bad that he begged me to save him from those girls so he could eat his lunch in peace. I told him that there was no way in hell that I was willing to risk my life to protect him from those girls! Do you know how crazy they were? Two girls broke their friendship over him."

"You are kidding? They wouldn't be so stupid as to break their friendship over some guy that didn't even like them?"

The smile on Naruto's face faded as she recalled the day when she entered the classroom and saw that the two girls were sitting in the opposite sides of the room. Even as a little kid, she thought that the whole thing was stupid and pointless. The two of them had something that she only longed to have. They had a bond that she tried to foster with them but denied her.

They threw that bond over a boy.

"They were," Naruto answered. "I don't even know what the big deal was but I just knew from that day on, their friendship was never the same."

"I know you guys were kids but you can't throw your friendship over a boy," Momo said, putting down her chopsticks. "Friendship is for life but crushes come and go. They should have focused more on their education and their plans for their future. If my mother heard me do what they did then she would have given me a huge scolding."

"Did I mention one of them had the highest grades when it came to the books?"

Jirou snorted. "What is the point of having the highest grades when you are not focus in the more important things in life? Throwing away a friendship for a boy is just wrong in so many levels."

The girl tilted her head and listened as her two classmates debate about the issue. So she was not stupid to think that they were wrong? Sakura had called her an idiot and told her that she would understand if she fall in love with someone. Till now, the girl still thought that it was stupid because no boy should be worth it. When there had been rumors about Kiba liking her, Naruto made it a point to tell Hinata that she didn't like Dog Breath.

She made it clear that their friendship meant more to her.

The girl dropped her chopsticks as she realized the irony behind her words. If their friendship meant the world to her then why did she run? Why didn't she tell Hinata that she was leaving? The girl deserved to know the truth. The pain of her fight with Sasuke didn't mean that her friend didn't deserve to know that she was fine. It didn't mean that she should have served ties with her.

She should have told the girl that she was leaving the village but Naruto knew that Hinata would have told her that she was coming with her.

Naruto might have had no one in the village but the girl still had a little sister that loved and worshipped the ground that she walked on.

It was too late for her to tell her that she left the village or how much their friendship meant to her.

She really was a bad person.

* * *

So this was the school that Naruto was going to? Jiraya mused to himself as he stared at the looming gates over him. He had spent a whole week trying to find the exact location of the train that stopped between the two continents. It had been difficult to locate the train with the way that the train did not really have a schedule that he could follow. It had been just his luck that the train had stopped in the remains of Uzushiogakure.

It had been an adventure getting to know the people that were going to Japan. Several of them had been civilians that were looking for a better life for their families while some of them had been refugees from Kirigakure, who wanted nothing to do with ninjas. Their behavior reminded him of his young charge and it had been difficult for them to open up to him, but he got there in the end.

Now it was his time to explore the country that he only heard stories about and only seen in television.

He jumped as the gates swung open and several teenagers walked out of the gates. For a brief moment, his mind went frozen as he tried to process the girl's uniform. The perverted part of him was tempted to try and hit on them while the part of him that was Naruto's godfather felt a sense of dread. If he was being tempted by a pair of short skirts then he would hate to wonder the kind of perverts that Naruto was facing.

His goddaughter might be able to break several bare limbs with her bare hand but it was worrying about how short their skirts were.

"See you, Naru-chan!" A girl called out.

Jiraya stood up straight when he heard the word 'Naru-chan'. His heart raced as a blond-haired girl walked out of the gates with a small smile playing on her lips. Was that really Naruto? The last time he saw the girl, she was tiny thing with eyes that were faded to nothing. The last time he saw her, she barely had the body of a woman.

The teen in front of him might have her father's colours but it felt like he was looking at a mini-Kushina except for the fact that she was even prettier than her mother. His stomach fell as he realized that there must be a possibility that there were several boys interested in her.

Why couldn't the girl be ugly?

Now all of his jokes about fendings her from perverts were going to be true.

"Ero-Sennin!"

The Sannin opened his mouth to scold her for her nickname but closed it when the girl launched herself at him. He could not scold her for that horrible nickname. It would be just too cruel for him to yell at her when they hadn't seen each other in nearly three years. He rubbed her back as the girl sobbed against his chest, telling him about how sorry she was for not contacting him.

He should be the one apologizing because he failed in his duties as a Godfather.

"Uzumaki, who is this?"

Jiraya frowned when he saw a bicoloured boy staring at them with curiosity. He flickered his eyes to his goddaughter, who released him from her hug and twisted her body around to look at the boy. The boy was a good looking boy that much he could not deny. In fact, it almost pained him to say that the kid might be one of the best looking boys that he had ever seen.

He was a lot more good looking than that Uchiha teammate that Naruto had and he would have been even more good looking if he didn't have that burnt mark.

"This is E…"

"I'm Naruto's Godfather and who might you be, young man?" The bicoloured boy arched his eyebrow while his goddaughter could only gape at him. He folded his arms against his chest and stared at the punk's eyes. This boy gave him a bad feeling. Not the same bad feeling as the Uchiha. If that was the case then everything would be fine.

"What the hell are you doing, Ero-Sennin?" Naruto grumbled. "Todoroki is my classmate."

If he was just her classmate then why the hell was the girl blushing like a little girl? In Konoha, the girl denied having any romantic feelings when it came to her teammate. She never blushed or anything. In the few minutes that he saw them interact, the girl was blushing as red as her mother used to when it came to her father.

It was his right to be concerned.

"If you are her Godfather then why did you abandon her? Why didn't you visit her when she was in the hospital?"

"Oh god." Naruto muttered, hiding her face behind her hands.

Jiraya curled his lips and stared at the rigid boy. His first impression of the boy was that he was a block of ice that did not care about anyone. The fact that the boy had the audacity to question him and his relationship with Naruto told him that he did care. The kid was a lot better than most of the kids in Konoha, who did not seem to even ask him about why he hadn't visited Naruto on time.

Then again, he never told anyone about the truth of their relationship.

"Because it took the brat nearly three years to even tell me that she was fine," Naruto smiled sheepishly and he ruffled her hair. She blinked and he could only give her a smile, hoping that it would be enough for her to be reassured that they were fine. That he was not really mad about the lack of contact. "And I have business all over the world since I am a famous writer."

It was not like he was lying.

His books were still famous in this part of the world since the big business owner had contacted his publisher to demand the books were published in Japan. They did tell the business owner that he had to altter a few things in the book. The only alteration in the books was where he was born and where he lived but other than those small changes, the book was the same as the ones that he sold in their part of the world.

"Now can I ask what are your intentions to my goddaughter?"

"Ero-Sennin!"

He was going to have so much fun with teasing the girl about her bonds with her classmates.

* * *

A/N: Please review.


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: I want to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows.**

* * *

Jiraiya curled his lips into a smile as Naruto rushed towards her kitchen to bring him a cup of tea. It might have been an hour since they left from her high school, but his godchild hadn't stopped blushing like a little girl with a crush. It had been even more amusing when the boy tried to tell him that his intention for his goddaughter. The blond-haired girl even tried to stop the boy from answering his question, but it was already too late.

Kushina would have laughed and teased them even more.

His smile faded when he thought about his deceased student and his wife. The two of them spent ten months, dreaming about their baby girl and planning her life. The two of them had only thought of the happiness of their child and they had to sacrifice themselves to protect a village that disregarded their wishes. He should have protected her more, should have been there more but the pain had been too raw.

Jiraya shook his head and stared at the large white teddy bear that sat on the side of the couch. Was it possible to make a bear larger than a couch? He glanced at the shelves, noticing the lines of cards which decorated it. He made his way to the shelves and stared the green card. He raised his eyebrow at the sight of the cute frog, who thanked his godchild for saving her life and their class.

What did Naruto do?

"I thought that you came here to help me with my training," Naruto called out, coming out of the kitchen with a tray of tea and some biscuits."I didn't think that you were going to question my classmate about our friendship."

"It was funny to see him try to explain to me about how he wants to be your friend," Jiraya admitted, taking the biscuit from the tray. "I was hoping to see him to stutter but that boy is solid as a rock."

"Todoroki doesn't show his emotions," Naruto explained. "But he has his own way of showing emotions."

The man nibbled the biscuit, soaking in the taste of the melting chocolate while he stared at his young godchild. What exactly happened to his goddaughter for her to land in the hospital? What did she save her classmates from? The card didn't give him any hint about what the girl did to land there.

"That Todoroki boy mentioned that you were in the hospital, but he didn't tell me about how you landed yourself in the hospital again."

Naruto kept her head down and grabbed the biscuit from her tray. She nibbled the treat like it was the only savior that she had and Jiraya could feel dread pricking up in his heart. This was the same behavior she displayed before making the decision of leaving Konoha. What happened? Did he have another person to try and hunt down? He wasn't allowed to hunt the Uchiha down, because Tsunade's apprentice still had hope that the kid would come back.

If Jiraya ever saw the Uchiha brat then he was going to make him wish that he stayed away.

"We were having a class trip when we got attacked by a couple of villains," Naruto admitted, rubbing the crumbles off her face. She picked up her tea cup, tracing the curves and waves in the cup, before continuing on. "They took everyone by surprise since we were on campus, and I don't know if you know this but our school is very well protected."

"If it is well protected then how were these people able to get in?" He pointed out. "And why your class?"

The blond-haired girl took a deep breath. "We don't know about how they got in without triggering the alarms but we had a theory that they had a villain with a quirk, which could interfere with the system. They attacked our class because we were supposed to be supervised by All Might."

All Might? Where had he heard that name before? His eyes widened as he recalled the numerous toy stores, which had many action figures of some blond-haired hero. The kids, in front of the stores, kept talking about how they wanted to be a hero just like the one in the store.

He didn't know that All Might was an actually hero.

"What is so special about All Might?" Jiraya questioned.

His student took a sip of her tea before giving him a small smile. "All Might is a pillar of hope for the people of Japan…and maybe the world too, but I don't know since I don't watch the news all that often. He is the symbol of peace and the kind of hero that everyone should strive for."

The admiration in Naruto's voice reminded Jiraya of a time when she used to declare that her favourite Hokage was Minato. They had been on their way to get Tsunade when the girl admitted which Hokage that she wished to emulate. He couldn't recall about the reason for their discussion but Jiraya remembered the admiration and love that the girl had for him.

Did the girl still have the same beliefs? Or had the Council destroyed her trust?

"So they want to destroy the pillar of peace and bring in an age of chaos?" Jiraiya guessed.

"I don't know but the leader seemed to have a grudge against him," Naruto stated. "Anyway, he brought a lot of villains with him and one of those villains separated us from each other. From what I know from Momo and Iida, everyone got sent to the different parts in the building."

"Did a couple of villains defeated you?"

His student snorted. "I might not have been training but I could deal with a couple of civilians."

"Then what happened?" He demanded. "What did they do for you to land yourself in the hospital again?"

"The head villain brought out a monster, which attacked our homeroom teacher." Naruto whispered, clenching her hands into a tight fist. "The bastard used a monster that nearly killed my teacher. He brought out a monster that could have killed my classmates and you know what happened? I lost control of the Kyuubi."

"Naruto…"

"The Kyuubi allowed me to defeat the monster but not before the monster was able to land a good hit on me," She admitted. His throat dried up when he heard those words. "The monster's punch tore through my stomach' skin and muscles and you can guess the rest."

Jiraya could only watch as Naruto took a large gulp of her tea. A monster attacked her? The brat nearly got herself killed again. Should he be furious with her for landing herself in this position again? It was not even the fact that she lost control of the Kyuubi, which made him want to throttle her. It was the fact that she acted recklessly.

If the girl could keep some control of her mind when it came to fighting in the Kyuubi form then this could be avoided.

"If you are going to scold me Ero-Sennin for my recklessness, then you would be pleased to know that Aizawa-sensei and All Might had already scolded me." Naruto admitted. "They thought that I was so reckless that they decided that I needed to go and see a therapist. Although I won't see the therapist until the Sports Festival."

"Therapist? Why do you need to see a therapist?"

The girl twiddled with her fingers. "I told them the truth about how I was treated in Konoha and they don't think it is a good idea that I don't see a therapist. They said kids with my kind of background always needed to go to therapy."

Therapy? Jiraiya knew that shinobi went for physical therapy but they never really went for mental therapy. It was a taboo thing to say because to say that you were mentally sick meant that there was something wrong with you. He didn't really know if it was true but those people don't think so. They thought that his godchild needed to see someone about her issues.

"Your kind of background?"

"I am a kid filled with a lot of emotional scars from what Konoha did to me," Naruto pointed out, stirring her tea with her spoon. The joy in her eyes faded till Jiraiya was reminded of the day that his student woke up from her bed. "They don't think that it is healthy for me to ignore it. They think that my experience in Konoha had made me reckless because I admitted that I didn't think anyone would miss me."

Jiraya felt his throat tightened when the girl admitted those words to him. No one would miss her? Didn't she realize just how much he cared for her? He might not have shown it to her but Naruto was very precious to him. He wouldn't have came here if he didn't think the world of her. If she wasn't important then Tsunade wouldn't have been so furious with those councilmembers for their idocity.

He took a deep breath and wrapped his arms around the girl. "Naruto Uzumaki, if you have gotten yourself killed and I found out about it, then you bet your ass that I would have tried to bring you back to life. I would have brought you back to life and yell at you for leaving me like this because I sent you here so that you can live."

"Ero-Sennin…"

"I might have taught you for a little while but you are still my precious student," he reminded her. "I wanted you to be happy and I wanted you to feel like yourself. I don't want you to think that your life is meaningless because it is not."

"Ero-Sennin…"

He smiled softly when the girl began to tear up and he wondered if it was going to become a common theme for her to cry. It should be disgraceful. He should tell her to toughen up but Jiraya knew that the girl must have bottled up her emotions in the past three years. His student must have kept her feelings to herself and had only just decided to release them.

"You are lucky that I saw all those cards before you told me this because I would still be doubting myself." Naruto blinked and Jiraya smiled tightly. "When I send you to Japan, I was gambling with your happiness because there was no way to tell if you were happier or not. Yet when I saw all those cards and that huge teddy bear, I knew that you found people that cared for you."

"I know." She smiled softly. "Which is why I want you to train me up."

Jiraya smiled at her determination before tilting his head as he remembered something Naruto had told him earlier.

"Wait a second, you mean the Sport Festival is real?" He demanded. "You mean that the show where those kids show off their crazy Kekkai Genkai is real?"

He thought that the whole thing was just some boring movie that some civilians made up. How was he supposed to know that it was real? Minato had always commented about how the effects were real but Jiraiya had always dismissed them as imaginary. At the time, he didn't think that Japan existed or rather, he didn't believe that they would do this.

"Please tell me that it isn't shown in Konoha!" The girl pleaded.

"You better hope that everyone is too busy to watch cable television."

While his student grumbled about her bad luck, Jiraiya began to formulate a plan for the girl. He could not allow Naruto not to do the festival. In fact, he refused to do this to her. No, he wanted Naruto to enjoy herself and he wanted her to show Konoha, what their biggest mistake was.

It was childish but their actions had ruined his godchild.

* * *

 **(A week later)**

"Is everyone ready?"

Naruto opened her eyes and stared at the door, where their Class President stood with a panicked look. Was he asking on the behalf of the teachers? Or was he asking because he was terrified? It would not even surprise her if it was both because the boy was known to overreact when it came to everything.

She leaned against her chair and looked up at the ceiling. Was she ready for this? Jiraiya had spent the whole week improving her taijutsu and spent very little time when it came to ninjutsu. He pointed out to her that it might take her more than a week to do elemental jutsu even if she used her shadow clones. She wished that he did teach her because Naruto had to prove herself.

She had to show council members that they made a big mistake by trying to exile her or so Jiraya informed her when she tried to come to the Sport Festival in her henge. He hadn't been amused with her plan to go in disguise and tell her teachers about the minor problem.

He just had to remind her that she couldn't run away from Konoha for the rest of her life.

"Midoriya."

Naruto stopped leaning against her chair when she heard Todoroki calling out to their classmate. She chewed on her bottom lip when she caught sight of his heterochromia eyes. The usual blank look in his eyes had been replaced with an icy coldness that reminded her of the blizzards in the television. What was putting him on edge? She asked herself as Izuku made his way to their classmate.

"What is it, Todoroki?" Izuku asked.

"If we are going to be speaking objectively then I am considered stronger than you," Todoroki pointed out. "I am more capable than you."

Naruto sat up straight at those words and eyed her two classmates. Izuku was staring at their classmate with tennis ball sized eyes that it wouldn't surprise her if they fell out. She glanced at Todoroki, noticing that his eyes were turning even colder if that was even possible. What was happeneing? Naruto asked herself as their classmates turned their attention on the boys.

Why was Todoroki acting like an ass?

"Y-Yeah that is true."

"Yet All Might has got his eyes on you, doesn't he?" Todoroki stated. "Now I'm not about to pry into why that is but I will beat you."

Naruto slipped her hands into her pockets, stood up from her seat and made her way to Izuku, who stood there with his wobbling legs. This was not normal Todoroki behavior. This was the kind of behavior that she would see from Sasuke or even Gaara, before he stopped being insane. Todoroki had never given her the feeling that he liked seeing people in pain.

She placed her hand on Izuku and kept her eyes fixed on Todoroki. "Todoroki, why are you acting like an asshole? In just a couple of more minutes, we are going to be out on stage."

"I don't care Uzumaki," Todoroki stated. "I'm not pretending to be friends with anyone here."

Did he really say those words to her? Naruto asked herself as she clenched her hands into a tight ball of fist. The anger in her was ready to explode, but she bit her lips and held herself back from making a stupid mistake. If it was not for the fact that they would get into trouble, she would dock him in the face for that stupid comment.

"You know I expected that kind of behavior from Bakugou but I never thought that you would say this." Naruto said, clenching her hands into a fist. "Lucky for you, I don't give a shit about what you want because I am not letting you do this to yourself."

She might be furious but she was not going to make the same mistake.

"Todoroki."

Naruto twisted her head to look at Izuku, who had a fire in his eyes, and smiled. A year ago, her classmate would be shaking in his feet as he stared at Todoroki's eyes. Now her classmate had his back straight and a fire that reminded her of someone but she didn't know who.

Maybe she would know when she was less stressed about what was going to happen.

"I'm not sure why you felt the need to tell me that you will beat me," Izuku admitted, clenching his hands into a fist. "And I cannot measure up to our classmates when it comes to skill…"

Naruto frowned as the boy prattled about his lack of skills. It was strange to see someone in the opposite side of the spectrum, she mused to herself as Kirishima tried to cheer the boy up. She was the kid that had been overconfident about her skill, not bothering to acknowledge the fact that she was weak. In fact, she tried to train by herself to become stronger than her teammates.

It was hard to train when you don't know how to train.

"Everyone is aiming for the top spot," Izuku said, snapping herself from her thoughts. "And I'm not gonna fall behind and because of that, I am going to aim for the top with everything that I have got."

It sounded almost something that she would say except Naruto would tell everyone that she was going to win it without a shadow of doubt.

* * *

( **In Konoha)**

It was a tradition for the Jounin to watch the Sport Festival in the Jounin Lounge. It allowed them to observe the ideas that the civilians had when it came to abilities and helped them create new ideas for their jutsu. It was also a tradition for them to make some bets when the new movie started with a new bunch of characters. Kakashi would admit that some of his jutsu had been inspired by some of the techniques used by the students of the movie.

"Did I miss anything?" Kakashi asked Asuma as he took a seat beside him. The ninja didn't answer him, instead he pointed to the television where the camera was showing a huge crowd of people.

"First up, you know who I'm taking about!" The man announced as the camera zoomed into the arena, where several kids walked out of the tunnels. "The miraculous rising stars who brushed off a villain attack with their steely willpower! It is class 1A!"

Kakashi felt his lips twitched when he caught sight of a boy with a mask walking towards the screen. There were so many characters that stood out from a boy that had a permanent scowl on his face, to the kid that looked like she was an alien. There always seemed to be a character that must look like an alien, he mused to himself as he placed his book into his pocket.

His smile faded when he caught sight of a familiar shade of blond-hair. Was it possible? No, Japan was not even real. It must be some actor that had a smiliar appearance to Naruto. There was no chance that could be his troublemaking student. The girl had been missing for the past three years. There was no way that the girl would go to the movies.

"Now for the Athelete's oath!"

Normally, Kakashi would keep his eyes fixed on the woman, but he could not help and look at the screen, trying to find a hint of the kid that looked like Naruto. They spent nearly three years trying to find the little girl but only to come up with a blank. They spent nearly three years trying to find his student, who just suddenly decided to leave the village.

Despite what the villagers say, Kakashi would not accept the fact that Naruto abandoned the village. This wasn't something that the girl would do. The girl that spent so long trying to get people's attention, would never try to abandon the village. No, there had to be another reason that the girl left the village. There had to be good reason for the girl leaving the village.

"Your student representative is from class 1A: Uzumaki Naruto!"

Any chatter in the lounge had died down when the woman announced the representative of the students. Instead, all the Jounin had their eyes fixed on the screen as a blond-haired girl made her way towards the platform with a quiet confidence that Naruto never had. In fact, he could only feel his palms sweat when he noticed that her eyes no longer held the same warmth.

What happened to his student?

What happened to the Naruto that they knew?

* * *

 **A/N: Please review and tell me what you think.**


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: I would like to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows.**

* * *

" _The athlete oath? I don't know a thing about it_ ," Naruto declared. " _You know what I know? I know that everyone in this arena had worked their asses to show everyone watching this event, just what they are made of. On the behalf of my fellow students, I wish to thank everyone for watching us and we hope that you will enjoy today's events._ "

Kakashi could only blink his eyes at the words that his student sprouted while the other jounins knitted their eyebrows together. Was this really Naruto? The girl would be boasting to everyone that she would defeat them with her eyes closed. The blond-haired girl was well known for this. What happened to her? _What happened to the Naruto that I knew?_ he asked himself as the girl bowed before the crowd.

"When has the brat ever acted polite?" One of the jounin asked as the camera showed the jinchuuriki making her way to stand beside her classmates. "She used to sprout nonsense about her becoming the next Hokage while doing one of her annoying pranks."

The silver-haired man thinned his lips and stared wearily at the television. Why was she acting so sensible? During the Chunin Exams, the girl declared to her competition that she was going to defeat them. She might have been twelve at the time but Naruto still would have known better at the time. There had to be something that was causing the girl to act so different.

He rubbed the back of his neck and stared at his former student, who had a small smile playing, as she talked to a red-haired boy, who had a large smile on his face. When had he seen Naruto smile like that? He could not remember the last time that the girl had given people such a tiny smile. She was always giving those huge smiles to everyone.

" _Now without any delay, let us get the first event started!"_ The woman declared, gesturing to the screen behind her. " _These are the qualifiers."_

Kakashi could only rub his chin as the screen revealed that the students were going to do an Obstacle Race. Obstacles? This would be a piece of cake for Naruto. Even if the girl was not a trained shinobi, she would have no trouble with defeating whatever obstacle that they throw her. Unlike Sakura, who must use chakra to enhance her strength, Naruto had a strength that could rival Tsunade.

"Does anyone want to make a bet that the she is going to run circles on them?" Genma called out, snapping Kakashi from his train of thought.

Everyone twisted their head away from the television to look at the relaxed Jounin. Everyone raised their eyebrows at the man, who was chewing on the senbon like he did not care about what was happening.

"What? The kid might not have been known for her brains but no one can deny that the kid is smart enough to figure her way out of trouble." Genma chuckled. "Do you know how many times I laughed when the chunin come to the Third Hokage, crying about how impossible it is to catch her."

"That is because Naruto was always tricking them," Asuma pointed out. "She might have been an Academy student at the time but my father was always impressed with the way she used her academy jutsu to her advantage. If the Academy teachers had focused on her then the kid would have been amazing in the field."

Kakashi flinched at the subtle dig. There was a lot of truth behind the man's words when it came to Naruto. He might not have trained the girl properly, but the girl could pick up things quickly. She mastered a B-class jutsu in a space of one day while most people would take months to master it. She might have struggled with the tree-walking exercise but the girl did better than he excepted, considering her large chakra reserves.

" _This is going to be a race between all the classes_ ," The television bellowed. " _The obstacle course is a four-kilometer lap around the stadium itself."_

They returned their attention back to the television, where the cameras were showing the faces of all the students. Each one of them looked excited for what it was to come, even the girls. Wasn't it strange? The civilian girls that weren't shinobi did not mind getting their hands dirty, while the girls in the Academy constantly complained about it.

He didn't know whether to laugh or to cry about their predictament.

" _Our school preaches freedom in all things,"_ The announcer giggled _. "So as long as you don't go off the course then everything is fair game!"_

The woman really shouldn't have said that because Naruto was going to fight dirty with them.

* * *

As her schoolmates headed to the starting line, Naruto realized that the aggressive aura emitted from the competition had faded after her speech. She frowned at the sight of the cold, furious eyes of her classmate. Why was he acting so different today? He usually kept to himself and when he did talk, the boy showed concern. What was it about today that was making him on edge? She asked herself when Todoroki stared at her.

She shook her head and stared at the crowd, who were gathered in front of the starting line. For a moment, Naruto recalled the second phase of the chunnin exam, when their team had been excited to enter the Forest of Death. If she was more honest, Sasuke and her had been excited for the whole thing. Sakura was terrified since Anko mentioned that people died in the forest.

 _Ding._

Naruto curled her lips into a tiny smirk at the sight of the jam caused by the students, pushing each other through the narrow gates. _If you can't go through the easy way then jump your way out of here,_ she mused to herself as she jumped on her fellow competitors heads to get her way out of here.

She landed on the ground, twisted her head to look at her competition, only to be greeted by their frozen feet. This could only be Todoroki's work. He was the only person that she knew who had a quirk that allowed him to freeze so many people.

"I ain't letting you get ahead that easy half and half!" Bakugou yelled from behind her. The older boy charged through the mass of people, eyes blazing with anger as he tried to catch up with the older boy. This was followed by the yells of her classmates and fellow competitors, who were trying to get themselves of the mess that Todoroki put them in.

Naruto curled her lips into a smirk, channeled her chakra into her tights and sprinted after their bicolored classmate. She could hear the distant yells of Bakugou, who made some comment about how he wasn't letting either of them win. He might not allow Todoroki to get ahead, but the bastard was never going to be fast enough to catch up to her.

She was going to try and exceed the weight seal that Jiraiya had forced her to wear.

"Uzumaki is running so fast that my eyes can't even keep up with her!" Present Mic yelled as she left a trail dust behind Todoroki and the others. She threw her head back, laughing at the man's words. Of course, his eyes couldn't keep up with her. The only people that could see what she was doing would be the shinobi watching her.

She started to slow down when the ground started to rumble, revealing a large robot that now loomed over her. It looked like the same zero-point robots that attacked them during the entrance exam. Distantly, she could hear Present Mic explaining that this was the first barrier of the obstacle course.

Really?

 _Couldn't they think of something better than a bunch of robots?_ Naruto grumbled to herself, leaping from the ground and slamming her fist against the robot. She could distinctly hear the cheers of the crowd as the robot disintegrated into a million pieces.

"Who knew that such a tiny girl could pack such a powerful punch!" Present Mic yelled. "Class 1A: Uzumaki is truly a force to be reckon with!"

Her heart soared at the man's compliment but Naruto didn't allow herself to soak in the compliment. Time was in the essence. If she wanted to show these people that she was not a joke then she needed to finish the first preliminary as soon as possible.

Soon she spotted the next barrier, which seemed to be many stone platforms that was covered by ropes. Well it would be considered hard if one didn't have the leg power to jump across, but Naruto was a former kunoichi. This was something that she could do with her eyes closed.

"It seemed like while everyone is stuck battling the robots, Uzumaki had already reached the second barrier: The Fall!" Present Mic informed. "If Uzumaki found the first barrier was a piece of cake then this should be a bit more challenging for her. If you fall from the canyon then you are out so you gotta crawl if you wanna make it."

"You think I am gonna crawl? I am going to jump!" Naruto declared, hopping towards the first platform. While she leapt across the platforms, she could hear the distinct sound of explosions and the yells that could only belong to Bakugou. If Bakugou was near then did it mean he was second? Or was it someone else? She shook her head and continued to leap.

This was not the time to care about who was first.

She released a sigh when she landed on the final rock platform. The blond-haired girl twisted her head around and saluted at Todoroki, who stood across the canyon from her. He blinked before placing his right leg on the ropes.

"You gotta to do better Todoroki!" Naruto yelled as the boy slid through the icy ropes. "Because I'm gonna win the whole thing!"

With those words, she returned to sprinting towards the finish line. She hoped that the Canyon was the last barrier because these things weren't really challenging enough. How could she show what she got to Konoha and the rest of the world if they made things so boring? Any plain old genin could do this without any trouble.

 _Well a genin that bothered to train,_ Naruto corrected herself as she recalled that Sakura nor Ino had the same insane strength that she had. Hinata would not have a problem, since her taijutsu could hurt like a bitch. It was really a shame that her friend never gotten top Kunoichi because the girl was a better kunoichi then her teammate.

"Our leader had finally reached the final barrier!" Present Mic declared as the walls around her turned from being plain to being filled with wires. There was a sign ahead of her, decorated with a huge skull that said: Danger! Mines! The blond-haired girl could only feel a sense of dread at those words. She might not have been in the country for a long time but she had been there long enough to know what a mine was.

"Uzumaki has reached the Minefield!" Present Mic yelled as Naruto flickered her eyes towards the strange unevenness of the ground. "A quick look should be enough to reveal the mines' location! So you need to keep both eyes open and watch your step!"

Naruto thinned her lips before making the hand gestures necessary for her shadow clones. If she was going to go through the mines then she needed to be cautious, because there was no chance in hell that she was going to make it easy for her competition to figure out where the mines were.

She could hear the gasps from the audience as her shadow clone turned itself into a bird, shooting itself into the sky. Naruto was glad that Jiraiya confirmed her theory about the shadow clone, or else she might have to be like a turtle for the next part of the barrier.

It was bad enough that she slowed down for the second barrier.

"Wait, what is Uzumaki doing with her clone?" Present Mic asked as the clone smashed itself into the middle of the ground. This caused both a huge explosion to the ground as well as a thudding headache. She curled her lips into a tight smile as the bird's eye view of the minefield flashed before her eyes. The memory of the explosion might cause a throbbing pain in her head, but it would be worth it for the chance to win the first preliminary.

She took a deep breath, relaxed her shoulders before doing the final sprint to finish line. From what the clone observed, there were a lot of mines located further away from the finish line and declined as one went straight ahead. There were also several mines to the far left of the field and near right of the finish line.

Naruto pitied her competition for not having any chakra because the shadow clones were a lifesaver.

This was her final thought as she crossed the finish line.

"Despite having a slow start in the beginning of the obstacle race, the winner of the Obstacle Race is: Uzumaki Naruto!"

The blond-haired girl pumped her fist in the air as the crowds roared her name. The sound of their chants should have brought joy to her ears. It should have made her heart flutter but all she could feel was hollowness. Why could she pleased these people but not Konoha? What was wrong with her that they could never be happy with her?

Why couldn't she be happy?

* * *

 **(Konoha)**

"Shikamaru, have you turned on the television? There is something that you need to see!"

Shikamaru could only groaned as Ino charged through his living room with Choji trailing behind her. Was it too much to ask for a day off? They just came back from the mission. This was not the time for him to watch some stupid tv show. This was the time for him to close his eyes and take a well-deserved nap. It was bad enough that he had been unsuccessful in finding Naruto.

He blinked his eyes when Ino flipped the channel to the Sport Festival. _Was that…Naruto_? He asked himself as the man announced the winner of the obstacle race. His former classmate stood there with her hand up in the air and a weary look in her face. What the hell was she doing in television? And wait, wasn't this supposed to be some show that was in a made-up country? Yet they searched every country for their former classmate and turned up with no clues.

"When did this happen?" He finally asked.

"Today," Choji informed him.

Ino nodded. "Choji and I were watching the Sport Festival in the BBQ place when we noticed a girl that looked exactly like Naruto. We didn't even think it was Naruto until the lady declared that Naruto was the student's representative for their first year."

 _Student's representative? Naruto? Are we talking about the same Naruto?_ Shikamaru asked himself as the camera flipped to the other students, who were crossing the rock platforms in many creative ways. The Naruto, he knew, would not be someone that the teachers would consider a good representative. She was also someone that hated the idea of anything to do with schoolwork.

How did this happen?

 _Why did the government make it seem like Japan isn't a real country?_ Shikamaru asked himself as he stared at the television screen. If he had known that there was a possibility that Japan was real then he would have informed the Hokage to broadened the search to Japan. He knew that Naruto would make it difficult for them to find her but he never knew that she would take it to this level.

This was not her normal behavior.

" _Class A knows that there is no time to hesitate,"_ A commenter said, snapping Shikamaru from his thoughts. The camera zoomed to the numerous students, including Naruto, who now sat on the fields. " _They have been exposed to the outside world, up close and personal. They have had that_ _ **fear**_ _planted in them and they have endured it. They have overcome their fear and each one of them have grown from that experience. They have forgotten how to hesitate."_

Just as the man finished commenting, the camera zoomed to a green-haired boy, who climbed the ropes with a huge metal armor plate on his back.

Shikamaru took a seat on the couch and clasped his hands together. He never really enjoyed watching the Sport Festival since his mother would always rant to him about how these kids had more ambition than him. His father used to remind his mother that the Festival was just something that they made up to give ideas for how shinobi could use their jutsu.

Apparently, his father was wrong.

"It really shouldn't surprise me that Naruto is first," Ino commented as the camera zoomed towards a bicoloured hair boy, who was making his way towards the third obstacle. "She only seemed to do well when it came to anything that required her to sweat."

Shikamaru thinned his lips at the reminder and bit his tongue from correcting her. It was true that Naruto hadn't gotten the best grades when it came to anything academic but their classmate was smart. It took brains for her to plan the pranks that she did. If it wasn't for the fact that Naruto liked attention then the girl would find all ways to erase any traces of her prank.

Now that he thought about it, Naruto used to try in school. When they had been younger, it had been their classmate that had been eager to learn. She had been the one, who had no problems with raising her hands and trying to get their teacher's attention.

However, it stopped after the first month of the Academy.

He wondered what caused Naruto to change.

* * *

It really did not surprise Todoroki that his blond-haired classmate won the obstacle race. She was the girl that could defeat the monster, which ripped their teacher apart. She was also the girl that had the most versatile quirk, which seemed to have very little drawback. No matter what the girl did, he did not see her really have a setback from overusing her ability.

He wondered if the girl could even over use her ability.

Now that he thought about it, where was Uzumaki? She might have had twenty minutes to wait for their second and third place but it did not mean that she could go to the middle of nowhere. He thinned his lips and began walking towards the tunnel. For all he knew, the girl might be in the bathroom but they didn't know how long it would be until everyone came out.

"You did good, kiddo."

Todoroki slowed down and hid behind the column as footsteps started to come closer. He peeked out of the pillar, where Uzumaki and her Godfather stood. How did the man get in here? Only Heroes and teachers were allowed in here, so how did the man evade security? He grimaced when he saw the solemn look in his classmate's eyes.

"If I did good then why do I feel like crap? I mean I should be thrilled that I won the thing but I don't feel happy." His classmate admitted. "You know three years ago, I would have been dancing and gloating to everyone that I won the first preliminary. I would be basking in the people's cheers but all I can think about is the village and how much I struggled to make them happy with me! What the hell is wrong with me? I am not some girl that wallows in her sadness but I can't seem to shake these feelings off!"

 _Three years ago? Village?_ Todoroki asked himself as the white-haired man frowned at the petite girl. Why did she mention three years ago? And why wasn't his classmate thrilled? Why did she make it seem like her personality changed a lot? And what village? Didn't she always live in Tokyo? He presumed that since she knew Bakugou and Midoriya then she would have lived here, most of her life.

"Naruto…"

"Do you remember the Chunnin Exams, Ero-Sennin?" Uzumaki asked, clenching her hands into a fist. "I was going against Neji and everyone thought that I had no chance against the prodigy of the Hyuga clan. They didn't chant my name until I defeated him."

 _Chuunin Exams? Hyuga Clan? What the hell was Uzumaki talking about? And why did Uzumaki wanted a village to be happy with her?_ Shouto asked himself as the girl's Godfather tried to comfort her. He should leave because the scene in front of him seemed awfully intimate. It felt like something that should only be shared between the two of them, but seeing Uzumaki cry her heart out was too uncomfortable to walk away from.

When Uzumaki cried in the hospital, everyone tried to comfort her and tell her that they weren't scared of her. He had been uncomfortable with the whole thing since he hadn't dealt with a crying woman in years. The last person that cried in front of him had been his mother and he hadn't been able to help her. Instead, the resemblance of his father had made his mother unhinged.

He paid the price for it.

"You know you can't live your life if you keep thinking about the past," The man pointed out. "What the villagers did to you is not something you nor anyone in your position can ever forget. They should consider themselves lucky that you didn't went crazy like that Gaara boy did."

Naruto sighed. "There were times when I was very close to becoming the monster that they claimed me to be, and to be honest I could never blame Gaara for losing his mind the way he did. The Fourth Hokage gave me this responsibility because there was no other kid available that day…but Gaara…Gaara was forced to become a weapon because of his father. You know he told me that his father attempted to assassinate him? God, every time I think about it…I just want to hurl."

He really should leave but there was something compelling about the conversation. Maybe it was the fact that Uzumaki was allowing herself to release her feelings to someone or perhaps it was the fact that no one really knew anything about her. The more he listened to the story, the more questions were swirling through his head. What did she mean weapon? And why would someone wanted to murder their own kid?

"Did you know that Gaara became Kazekage?" The man informed his classmate, who blinked her eyes. A small smile broke out of his classmate's face, lighting her whole face up. A smile really did make a huge difference to her appearance, because Uzumaki looked nice when she had a blank expression. Yet when she smile, she looked like the sun.

"I am happy for him," His classmate declared. "He went from being the outcast to the one leading the whole village, but it makes me wonder how could he move on from their treatment? I wonder if I can look back in the past and not feel resentment for their treatment."

The man kept quiet at those words.

"I know it was not the old hag's idea to exile me and I did hear her fighting the council members about it," Uzumaki said, earning a frown from her Godfather. "But I spent seven fucking years trying to get their attention, trying to get their love and the moment I failed to bring back my teammate, they decided to cast me aside like I am some kind of toy. They didn't even acknowledge the fact that I nearly died to bring him back home. You know Sakura blamed me for not bringing him back? She told me that I was useless because I couldn't bring him back."

Todoroki could only watch as the girl balled her hands into a fist. Teammates? Council? Mission? Uzumaki was talking as if she was a solider of war but it was impossible. From her description, she would have been twelve years old when all this happened. What twelve-year-old would be in a mission? The world wasn't like before. Everyone forbade the use of child soldiers since everyone knew that those kids became messed up.

"You are not useless, Naruto." The man reminded her. "Just because you failed in a mission doesn't mean that you are useless. Everyone fails in their mission but it doesn't make a person useless."

"But she had a point," Uzumaki muttered. "Shikamaru picked me for the mission not only because I can throw a mean punch, but because I was only person that Sasuke considered as a friend. He thought that Sasuke would listen to me but I couldn't get him to listen. I can get a stranger to listen but not my teammate. How pathetic am I? You know what the bastard told me? He told me that our bond meant nothing to him, that our friendship was something that could easily be broken. If he thought like that then why did he missed my heart?"

"Naruto, please tell me that you don't have thoughts about…"

Todoroki walked away as the two of them continued their conversation. The conversation between his classmate and her godfather had made his stomach twisted and brought a sense of bile to his throat. He knew Uzumaki had a reason to keep to herself but no one could ever guess that her best friend nearly murdered her. He never presumed that it was her friend that could abuse her.

He never thought that someone would be so cruel to blame a person that nearly died for another person's decision.

It made him realize that there were kids, out there that had it worse than him.

* * *

A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter. What do you think about the conversation between Jiraiya and Naruto?


	15. Chapter 15

A/N: I want to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows. I also want to thank everyone that reviewed the last chapter.

* * *

" _Naruto, please tell me that you don't have thoughts of saving your teammate."_

Jiraiya's words haunted her even when she returned to the arena, where her fellow competitors and classmates were chatting without a care in the world. Their joyful, tired faces almost made her envious of them but she squashed down her envy. This was not the time to allow her emotions to grab control of her. It was not their fault that she had lingering guilt and doubts about her former teammate.

Like she told her mentor, she didn't know what her thoughts or feelings were when it came to Sasuke. A large part of her resented him for trying to throw their friendship way, for nearly murdering her but a small part of her worried for him. As much as she wanted to hate him, Naruto still loved Sasuke. She might not love him like Sakura did but Sasuke had always been the overprotective older brother to her.

He went as far as to sacrifice his life for her and Naruto could never bring herself to hate him, because of that small fact.

"The top 42 from the qualifying round will move on!" Midnight declared, snapping Naruto from her thoughts. "But for those who placed lower, don't worry! We have got another way for you to show your stuff."

Naruto tuned the woman out as she prattled about what the students were going to do. Instead, she fixed her eyes on Jiriaya, who held a small flag of her face. Her lips tilted upwards at the small display of support. They knew that he could not draw attention to himself or else the camera would be directed towards him, which would get him into huge trouble with everyone in Konoha.

Her teacher risked getting into trouble to support her and yet she worried him about her doubts with Sasuke.

"The main selection of the preliminaries will now begin," Midnight declared, snapping her out of her thoughts. "I already know what the second event is, of course since I'm the referee…"

Everyone tensed as the screen flashed to reveal that they were going to do a Cavalry Battle. _This is going to be difficult_ , Naruto thought, rubbing her chin. If she was on top then she couldn't exactly used her jutsu since most of them required her to use her hands. She could punch but she did not want to send people to the hospital again. Well, she would not mind if it was Mineta but that was a different story.

She couldn't use her clones since one solid hit could cause it to disappear,

Naruto might need to be more creative when it came to her chakra.

"So we're teaming up but how exactly?" Tsuyu asked, tapping her chin.

"Participants will, on their own, form teams of two to four members each and get into a horse-and-rider formation," Midnight replied. "The rules are fundamentally the same as those of an ordinary Cavalry battle—take your opponent's headbands while guarding your own but with just one exception: each of you have been assigned a point value based on your ranking in the last event."

Everyone began muttering about the possibility of how the point system might work. Some people pointed out that they were just going to earn points from the entrance exam while other pointed out that the point value depend on their members.

"Can everyone please keep quiet while I explain how the points work!" Midnight yelled, effectively quieting all of the students. "The student who took 42nd is worth five points while the person who 41st is worth ten points, you get it? But the person who took first place is worth ten million points!"

Naruto groaned as everyone swirled their heads to look at her. Why did Jiraiya had to confirm that everyone in the Elemental Countries were going to watch her? Why did he tell her that she should stand out to make her point? And why did her stupid boss have to gamble their workplace? She could have done things the shinobi way.

"If I were you guys, I would target the higher-ranked students," Midnight giggled. "The survival game is a chance for a comeback. It is _**anyone's**_ game."

The blood-thirsty looks on her competition's face made her want to grimace. If this was a one-to-one battle then there was no chance in hell that they would be that confident. She was physically stronger then everyone in this arena, had more battle experience then them but she had one weakness: her chakra seals and lack of knowledge of elemental jutsu.

She really should have demanded Jiraiya to teach her about using elemental jutsu.

"…After taking _**first place**_ in the qualifiers, Uzumaki Naruto has gotten ten million points!"

Naruto kept her body still as they swirled their blood-thirsty eyes on her. Each one of her competitors wanted to get to the top. Each one of them had a good reason for becoming a hero but none of them probably wanted to win this thing as much as her. None of them had their former teammates, classmates and even the council members watching them with judgmental eyes.

She could not afford to be disqualified.

"The match will last fifteen minutes," Midnight informed them, snapping everyone back to the task at hand. "Each team's points are determined by its member. The rider will wear a headband displaying the total number of points! Until the match ends, you will all compete to grab each other's points and maintain the ones you have."

Several people smirked at those words.

"Any headband you grab must be worn around the neck or higher, but the more headbands you have got then the harder they will be to manage," Midnight continued. "Most importantly, even if your headband is taken and even if your horse formation is broken then it is not over."

Well she didn't understand that bit.

"Does that mean with forty-two contestants, there will be ten to twelve teams on the field the whole time?" Satou questioned.

How was she going to win this whole thing? Could she just disguise the headband to be something else entirely? Would it be possible for her to switch it? It would be cruel but it was the only logical thing to do. If she had placed fourth or even fifth then she wouldn't have much problems, but this was her disadvantage. She needed to guard the headband if she wanted to remain in the top spot.

"Quirks are allowed so it will be a brutal battle!" Midnight reminded them. "It is still a cavalry battle! If you attack another team with the intention of making them fall then you will get a red card and that means you are out of the game. You've got fifteen minutes! Time to form your teams!"

She rubbed her chin and flickered her eyes at her competitors, who were busy trying to get group members. Midoriya ranked second but he had the disadvantage when it came to his quirk; there was also a chance that he would refuse since he wanted to win.

Who was the next option? If she wanted to fight then she would need someone that could catch her. Unlike most people in her class, she didn't have a quirk or a Kekkai Genkai. Her abilities was absolutely useless when she was up in the air. God damn it, she actually wished that she had Shikamaru. Her classmate was a genius when it came to strategies.

She blinked her eyes as she recalled that Tsuyu could do whatever a frog could do.

There were a lot of people in the crowds but the blond-haired girl could pick out her classmate from the crowd of students. In fact, she spotted the green-haired girl looking a bit lost. _How could anyone miss her?_ Naruto asked herself as she charged towards the girl. It might be true that the girl might not show her abilities during the Obstacle Race but Tsuyu was smart and good at her quirk.

"Tsuyu! Please be apart of my team!"

"Naru-chan? I don't know if…" Tsuyu asked, tilting her head.

The blue-eyed girl grabbed hold of her classmate's shoulder and smiled. "I know you might protest about the idea since people are going to go after us but we can do it. Your quirk is amazing and I want to borrow it during this stage of the obstacle, so will you lend me your power? I know we can win this if I have you by my side."

The girl hesitated but Naruto could only stare earnestly at her classmate. She knew there were a lot of reasons for Tsuyu to say no to her. Out of everyone in the arena, she was going to be the one that everyone was going to attack. They would need to be on guard, which was harder than attacking and not many people could do it. However, Naruto knew that they could do this.

"Okay."

The blond-haired girl clapped her hands before scanning the area for more potential partners. Bakugou was already pairing up with Kirishima, Ashido and Sero. Todoroki had Iida, Momo and Denki. Izuku had Ochako, the Tokoyomi and some girl with pink hair. Some of her potential partners were already gone. Maybe she could ask some of the kids from Class 1B.

The question was how was she going to convince them? And what were their quirks? No, it was too risky even for her.

She blinked her eyes when she caught sight of Shoji and Mineta talking to each other. Shoji would be a good idea because he could hide them, but there was also a risk that someone could sneak attack them. Mineta would be useful with his quirk but it would mean dealing with his perverted behavior.

Could she handle it?

"Naru-chan, what are you thinking about?"

The blue-eyed girl chewed on her bottom lip, grabbed hold of Tsuyu's hand before rushing towards the two boys. It would be easy to convince Mineta to work with her as long as she could wheedle the next issue of the Icha-Icha series out of Ero-Sennin. It would be Shoji that she needed to convince because the boy would have doubts about their quirk.

"Uzumaki, what are you doing here? Shoji and I already formed a team!" Mineta declared.

The blue-eyed girl curled her lips into a smirk. "How about adding Tsuyu and I to the team?"

"Do you think I'm insane? We are going to be constantly attacked!" Mineta cried. "I might like the chance to be close to your body but nothing in the world will make…"

"I will get you an unreleased copy of the Icha-Icha series if you agree to work with me."

The short boy blinked his eyes, gaping at her words while Tsuyu and Shoji stared at her like she was insane for making such a big offer. It was wrong in so many levels but the blond-haired girl was desperate to have a team, even if the teammate was one of the biggest perverts that she ever had the pleasure of knowing. She would do anything to get her team even bargin for a book series that she hated.

"And how are you even going to get the unreleased copy?" Mineta demanded. "Do you even know what you are saying…"

The blond-haired girl grimaced, grabbed the tiny boy and pointed in the direction, where Jiraiya stood.

"Is that really _him_? Uzumaki, are you really telling me that my idol is really here?" The boy cried.

Time for her to bring up the fake backstory that Jiraiya told Todoroki.

"Your idol is my Godfather," Naruto lied as her two classmates stared at her with judging eyes. "If you could stick everyone and keep an eye on anyone trying to get our headbands then I will tell Ero-Sennin to give you a sneak preview of his book."

"How do I know that you are not lying?" Mineta asked, narrowing his eyes at her.

The blue-eyed girl raised her eyebrow. "Do you really think I will try to bargain with you if I wasn't sure that I can get it done especially with such a perverted book? If I say I can get it done then I can get it done."

"Okay but I should warn you that my quirk isn't useful."

He might not think that it is useful but Naruto could see a lot of potential use with his quirk.

* * *

"Can you believe that brat is on television?"

"I can't believe that she has gotten ten million points and all she could find was those three misfits!"

These were the words that Sakura was greeted when she entered the hospital room to check on her patients. The two chunnins had their eyes fixed on the television, which was showing the Sport Festival. Was it this time of the year? She never had the time to watch the show since being a medical nin meant that she never had a day off.

"What are you two talking about?" Sakura asked the men as she picked up the needle.

The two men swirled their heads at her, looking almost nervous at the sight of her. Had those two do something stupid again? Honestly, it was becoming a habit for her to see that all the patients becoming terrified of her. If they just listened to her orders then she would not have to raise her voices at them. Sometimes, she thought that the patients were worse than Naruto because the girl listened.

"Haruno-san, haven't you seen the television during your rounds?"

"I was in the operating room until twenty minutes ago. What does that have to do with what you are talking about?" she admitted, earning grimaces from the two men. They glanced at each other before pointing to the television screen, where a familiar blond-haired girl was sitting on top of masked boy's back along with two other kids.

For a brief second, Sakura's mind drew blank as she processed the sight in front of her. _Was that Naruto?_ She asked herself, taking a seat beside the two patients. It couldn't be Naruto. Her teammate was a lot of things but the girl would never abandon the village. If there was one thing that Sakura was certain, it was the fact that Naruto loved the village with all her heart.

It made sense for Naruto to go back in searching for Sasuke-kun but not for her to abandon the village.

"Is that Naruto?" Sakura asked, balling her hands into a fist.

The two men nodded. "We didn't believe it too until they announced that Naruto Uzumaki was the student's representative for their first-year students."

Naruto? Were they talking about the same Naruto? Her teammate was a lot of things but the girl was never diligent in school. It was something Sakura took pride in because while the girl could boast about her strengths, she could boast about her intelligence. _Not that it mattered to Sasuke-kun_ , Sakura thought bitterly as the screen revealed the number of students that were charging to her teammate.

Even when they were in the Academy, Sasuke only had eyes for Naruto. He never vocalized it but the fact that he liked only long-haired girls meant that his crush must have been their teammate. Most of the girls in their year only had short hair but not Naruto. Their teammate always had long, golden hair and eyes that sparkled like the sapphire. It made sense that his crush must have been the girl.

It didn't help that Sasuke never made any signs of annoyance whenever Naruto touched him.

She hated the fact that Naruto could get his attention without any problems while Sakura couldn't even get him to acknowledge her. The pink-haired girl tightened her grip as she watched her teammate barked orders to the boy beside her, who threw the balls in the grounds.

"Haruno-san, Uzumaki was your teammate, wasn't she?" The chunin asked as the girl jumped from the boy's back and swirled a kick to her opponent. _Not her_ , Sakura corrected herself as the opponent tried to reach for her classmate's headband, only for it to pop out of existence.

"She _**is**_ still my teammate."

The girl might have left the village but Sakura would always consider Naruto to be her teammate.

"Do you have any idea why she left?" Sakura blinked at this sudden question, earning a sigh from the two men. "The fact that she found Japan meant that the girl must have been planning for a long time to leave the village but it makes one wonder why did she leave after failing her mission?"

" _You're useless!"_

The memory of her argument with Naruto flashed through her mind as she watched her teammate high-fived a tiny boy. It had been wrong of her to say those words to her teammate, she knew that but she could never control her temper when it came to Naruto. Out of everyone in their village, Sakura thought that the boy would listen to Naruto. He never seemed to listen to anyone but he always seemed to show a tiny hint of emotion when their teammate was concerned.

She thought that if Naruto couldn't be good when it came to fighting to Sasuke then she could be good in talking to reason.

When Kakashi came back to the village with just Naruto and no Sasuke in sight, Sakura only felt rage and disappointment with her teammate. Why did she came back but not Sasuke? If anyone should have come back then it should have been the boy. No one would really miss Naruto if she was gone but Sasuke was everything to Sakura.

Now that she looked back on it, it was cruel for her to take out her feelings on Naruto. If anyone should grieve about their failure then it should have been Naruto. The girl came back with a hole in her chest, eyes that looked so lost and a tiredness that should never been there. Sakura wanted a relationship with Sasuke but her female teammate had one with the boy; a relationship that she wanted so badly to be a part of.

"I have no idea why she left." Sakura admitted, staring at the screen. The solemnness and seriousness in her former teammate's eyes as she ordered her companions to charge after the other teams, even though it had been a bicoloured boy who grabbed her headband. It chilled her to the bones to see Naruto like this. During the Chunin Exams, her teammate had been all smiles and confidence even though there had been a possibility of death.

To watch Naruto act like her complete opposite in the field that only terrified her. Out of everyone in their class, Sakura never thought that the girl would change from her childish behavior. She always made the presumption that even when they got older that Naruto would still be her goofy, forgiving self.

Now as she watched her teammate chased after the other opponents, Sakura realize that maybe the Naruto she knew wasn't there anymore. The girl who always made jokes would never stop to think about taking other people's headband. The blond-haired girl would simply try to take back what was hers even if everyone told her that it was a stupid idea.

She could only stare blankly as a green-haired girl wrapped her tongue around Naruto, throwing her in the air. The girl barking orders to grab a headband from a blond-haired boy, grabbing it with a tightness that Sakura never seen before. It was the tightness of someone who had everything to lose.

It made her wonder if maybe her childish words hurt her teammate.

* * *

"I can't believe that we were still able to enter the tournament! You are lucky that most of the members of team Shinso didn't want to continue," Mineta commented as the two of them made their way towards the stands. The older boy had a large smile, which was no doubt caused by the fact that they were going to meet his idol.

Naruto rubbed the back of her neck at the reminder of their bad lucky. If it was not for the fact that most of team Shinso didn't want to enter the tournament then they would not be able to enter. Honestly, she really needed to work on her strategy but she really thought that immobilizing the opponents would be easy for them to protect the headband. She really should have considered the fact that Bakugou would not give up when it came to the headband.

"If you keep reminding me that I screw up then I will tell Ero-Sennin that you harassed me," Naruto threatened, earning a gulp from the tiny boy.

They brushed passed several heroes until they reached Jiraiya, who had his notebook open. What was the man doing? Was he trying to figure out a way to do research again? It would not surprise her since that was the one thing Jiraiya complained about this part of the world. The man got into huge trouble when a woman with an x-ray quirk caught him trying to peak through the public baths.

"Naruto, what are you doing here?"

"I promised my classmate that you will give him a sneak preview of your book if he helped me with the Cavalry Battle," Naruto informed the older man. Jiraiya raised his eyebrow, flickered his eyes to the beaming boy before bursting out in laughter. This earned a scowl from the blond-haired girl while a worried look from her teammate.

"It would be nice if someone could give me more ideas on what should be in the book," Jiraiya commented, earning a look of horror from Naruto and a look of pure joy from the older boy. "My editor had been bothering me about the lack of creativity in the book and the errors in the book. You also know that it is hard for me to do research in this area but the kid's quirk is very useful for my research."

"Ero-Sennin…"

"I know my kind, Naruto and that boy is just perfect for the job," Mineta smiled so widely that Naruto feared her classmate's mouth was going to drop. "You know I tried to get Naruto to correct my grammar but the kid refuses to read my book."

The girl could only listen in horror as the two perverts talked about the greatness in her teacher's work. If they were going to talk about the greatness of his work then Naruto needed to walk away before she released her temper on them. It was bad enough that Jiraiya complained about the difficulty of getting research done or about how she was being a terrible student for not agreeing to read over his work.

She was his apprentice when it came to the Toads but not when it came to his perverted books.

Naruto shook her head, shoved her hands into her pockets and made her way towards the waiting room. It would be a good idea for her to get some rest before the battles, maybe even talk to some of her classmates or Itsuka. She didn't have the time to talk to her friend during the whole competition due to the difference in timing when it came to the first obstacle race.

The tunnels were empty except for Bakugou, who stood behind the walls that lead to the outside. What the hell was the bastard doing? She asked herself as she walked towards him. Why the hell did he look like he was concentrating for an exam? He never looked like that; he either look angry or he looked really pissed off. The answer to her question became apparent when she heard Izuku and Todoroki's voices.

"You wanted to talk?" Izuku asked.

Naruto knitted her eyebrows together and leaned against the other wall, channeling her chakra into her ears. This earned a raised eyebrow from her fellow blonde but the girl could only scowl at him. If he could listened in on their conversation then it was only fair that she did too.

"You overwhelmed me," Todoroki stated, earning a frown from the blond-haired girl. "You overwhelmed me to the point that I broke my own pledge."

Overwhelm? What did Izuku do to overwhelm their stoic teammate? And what pledge? After Todoroki grabbed her headband, she had been more focus with getting the other headbands from the other groups. It would have been a better idea to try and grab her original headband but Naruto knew that their time limit wouldn't allow that to happen. Instead, she decided to steal the other opponent's headbands.

"None of our teammates felt it but in that last moment, I was the only one feeling that pressure," Shouto informed him. "I have seen All Might's true power up close when I was younger."

The blond-haired girl didn't know what expression her classmate was making but the fact that her ear could pick up his heartbeat, indicated that he was nervous.

"W-What are you saying?" Izuku stuttered.

"I felt the same pressure coming from you," Todoroki repeated. "So…are you All Might's illegitimate child or something?"

Naruto blinked, blinked and blinked her eyes as she tried to process what her classmate just ask. Should she laugh at the seriousness of the question? Or should she

take it seriously? She didn't know Izuku's family life but she heard rumors that his father could breath fire. Okay, she didn't hear rumors. Bakugou pointed it out whenever he brought out about the fact that Izuku had no quirk.

Her eyes widened as she recalled that small detail. Until just recently, Izuku never had a quirk. He was always made fun for being quirkless but then during the quirk test, Aizawa revealed that he had a quirk. How could she forget such a small detail?

"N-No, I mean I am denying that but…" Naruto could only quietly slap her forehead as Izuku fumbled in his explanation about his relationship with All Might. "Obviously, if I really was his kid then I would try to deny it, so I realize that I don't sound very convincing here…but no, that is not it…"

 _That is not it?_ The blond-haired girl rubbed her chin at her classmate's slip. There was no denying the fact that out of everyone in their class, All Might did seem to have a small spot for Midoriya. The man was constantly asking their classmate to eat lunch with him or stare at him with the same fatherly look that Jiraiya gave her.

 _Maybe he is thinking about taking Midoriya as his apprentice_ , Naruto mused to herself as Todoroki pointed out that the boy admitted to having relationship with him. It would make sense since the two of them did share a similar quirk, maybe Midoriya even convince the man to look at him. God knew that was how she got the Ero-Sennin to take her seriously when she requested him to train her.

Sometimes the blonde wondered why Ero-Sennin decided to continue training her but she would always try hard not to think about it.

It was better to be grateful for what you have.

"You must know that my father is Endeavour," Todoroki declared. "He is the second greatest hero of all time, so if you are somehow connected to the number one hero then it gives me more reason to _**crush**_ you."

Naruto felt her legs wobble at the anger and bitterness in her classmate's tone when he mentioned who his father was. Why was he so angry when he mentioned who his father was? Shouldn't he be proud that his Dad was the second greatest hero in the world? Most people would boast about the greatness of their father. It was not like anyone could claim that their father was one of the top three heroes in Japan.

"My Father is a powerful bastard who only thinks of becoming stronger," Todoroki declared; Naruto's breath hitched at those words. "He used his power to make a name for himself as a hero but he has always seen that living legend All Might as a boulder and an eyesore; a proof of his failure. He is still at it though, trying to take down All Might in one way or another."

"What is this about, Todoroki? Why are you telling me this?" Izuku asked.

"Have you ever heard of Quirk Marriages?"

Naruto flickered her eyes towards Bakugou, who had his eyebrows knitted together and a small frown playing on his lips. In all her years of knowing the blond-haired boy, she had never seen him this thoughtful. The fact that her classmate even had this look told her that she was not going to like what she was about to hear.

"They became a problem in the first few generations after quirks appeared," Todoroki recited and Naruto felt a sense of heaviness at what her classmate was going to say. "Strong individuals would choose a partner and force them into marriage for the sole purpose of passing on a stronger version of their own quirks. Many of these people were forced into relationships. They were simply viewed as old fashion arranged marriages but it is clear that it was unethical."

The blond-haired girl felt bile rising up in her throat as the dots quickly connected in her mind. If Endeavour could not overcome All Might then he would make a child that could do it. It was something that any person, who gave up, would do. It was something that made her sick to her stomach. How many times had she tried to tell Hinata to fight her father when it came to her relationship in the future?

She never knew if her friend got her father to listen to her.

"My father doesn't just have fame but he also had enough money to make my mother's family agree to the marriage," Todoroki declared. "He bought her just so he could get his hands on her quirk and now he is raising me as a hero, who could exceed All Might, just to fulfill his own ambitions. It is so annoying! I refuse to be a tool for that scumbag! And every memory of my mother, I only see her crying. I remember her calling my left side unbearable before throwing hot water in my face."

Naruto touched her face as she felt something watery rain down her face. _Tears,_ she thought numbly as she stared at the ceiling above her while her mind swirled with the information that she learnt. Unbearable? Did his father abused his mother so badly that she never saw the truth? She might not know Endeavour but her classmate did not look a lot like his father. The man was harshness and rough around the edges but Shouto was gentle. Shouto was sweet, kind but most of all he was a caring person, even if he did not know how to show it properly.

Shouto did not deserve to have the family that he had.

* * *

A/N: I am sorry about the lack of action in this chapter but I will be honest when I say that I really did not have a clear idea on how to write that action scene. So please tell me what you think about this chapter especially on your thoughts about Sakura.


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N:** I want to thank everyone that added this story to their favorites and follows, as well as everyone that reviewed.

* * *

Jiraiya felt his lips twitch at the sight of his goddaughter and her female classmates wearing a cheerleader outfit. That classmate of Naruto told him that it would be easy for him to get more inspiration during the Sports Festival, but he hadn't realized the young boy would find a way to make his classmate wear such nice clothes. A part of him wanted to cheer out loud for the beautiful sight in front of him while the other wanted to maim the boy for involving his apprentice.

The cheerleader uniform did suit his godchild, Jiraiya admitted, taking out a pen and notebook from his pocket. The colors might not be the best when it came to her skin tone but it did show her figure nicely. In fact, it showed her figure too nicely. He might be far away from the girl but Jiraiya had already caught sight of several boys checking the girl out.

Minato would kill him for letting his daughter dress like this while Kushina would giggle at the number of boys that took an interest in her daughter.

"We shipped in cheerleaders from America to get everyone pumped up," The announcer declared. The man's voice trailed off as everyone started to whisper about the outfits worn by the girls. "Eraserhead, why is Class 1A female students wearing cheerleader's outfits?"

Jiraiya channeled the chakra into his eyes, wishing to see what the reactions of the girls might be. Were they going to be embarrass? It would be a natural reaction. Maybe one of them would make such a cute face that he could describe it in his book. The editor had been complaining about how none of the female characters seemed cute anymore.

He choked when he caught sight of Naruto closing her eyes into a thin line, hands balled into a tight fist as she made her way to Mineta and another blond-haired boy. A sense of dread washed over him as he recalled how Kushina had nearly tore him apart when she caught him peeking on her and Minato.

 _May those boys rest in peace_ , Jiraiya prayed as the blond-haired girl smashed her fist into the boy's faces.

"It seemed like Uzumaki had decided to punch her classmates and…is she threatening them?" The announcer declared as the girl picked the two boys up by the collar. Jiraiya could only imagine the creative threats that Naruto was telling her classmates. He might not know Naruto as well as he would like, but there was a reason that the Third Hokage called her a mini-Tsunade.

It was not just her temper.

The other commenter sighed. "I do not agree with the use of violence but this is considered sexual harassment. The girls have a right to defend themselves…even if I have to question their methods."

The girl was tame if you asked Jiraiya. He still had a reminder of what Tsunade did to him when he tried to peek on her and the other girls in the hot spring.

"You got to admit that the Uzumaki girl is quite a spitfire," One of the audience members declared. "I mean no one would be brave enough to threaten people in front of live television."

 _Naruto used to be an even bigger spitfire_ , Jiraiya mused to himself as he stared at his furious godchild, who had an ugly scowl on her face as her fellow classmates tried to calm her down. There was a time when the girl would have no problem with telling people that she was going to win the whole thing. There was a time when Naruto had no fear of rejection.

Her teammates made her like this.

Jiraiya shook his head, shut his book and stared at the girl, who was now taking several deep breaths to calm herself down. Most of the boys had learnt to now look away from his furious godchild but only the Todoroki boy, as well as another scowling blond-haired boy, were looking at his goddaughter. The scowling boy looked at his godchild with respect but the Todoroki boy…he looked befuddled.

 _Embarrassed too_ , Jiraiya thought to himself, noticing the slight pinkness in the boy's face. Wanted to be friends with his goddaughter, his ass. The kid had his eyes lingering on his godchild's blond hair and her chest. There was no way that a friend would look at his godchild, the way that kid was looking at Naruto. This almost reminded him of the time that Minato denied liking Kushina, only for it to be ruined when he pointed out that his eyes only seem to linger on her red hair.

It had been funny to watch the boy splutter and deny his feelings to him.

"There will be a formal tournament between the sixteen members of the four winning teams," The referee declared. "However due to a few members dropping out, a few of the members from the fifth runner-up will take the place. The tournament will consist of everyone doing one-on-one battles."

Most of the students seemed excited as they went up to the podium to get their numbers. The only one who seemed to be the least enthusiastic was Naruto. If anything, his student had her eyebrows scrunched together as she stared at the board, which was slowly being filled with names.

He clicked his tongue together when he caught sight of his student chewing on her lips as she stared at the bicolored boy. In the week that he taught her, Jiraiya learned that the girl had a habit of nibbling on her lips when she was worried for someone. It was a sign that he should have caught whenever the girl had thoughts of her former teammate.

He prayed that this would not affect the girl when she had her battle.

* * *

Naruto closed her eyes as she laid down on the grass, soaking in the heat of the sun. She should be happy about the fact that she was going to show her stuff but it was hard to feel joy. How could she allow herself to be happy when her classmate was going through so much hell? It just was not right of her to feel this way. God, the fact that Shouto was having such a huge issue meant that the younger boy was not going to do his best in this match.

" _How would you understand my pain? You never had a family."_

She sighed as the memory of Sasuke yelling those words flashed through her mind. He was right about the fact that she never had a family, who cared for her but Naruto preferred it. Her whole life, she imagined, that her parents would have been somewhat like the civilian parents. She never stopped to imagine that maybe she would have ended up with a family that would abuse her.

It was both a curse and a gift to be an orphan who never met her parents.

"You're that Uzumaki kid, aren't you?"

Naruto opened her eyes to see a tall young man looming over her. The man looked like he could be around his late teens to his early twenties. In the eyes of her former teammate and classmates, the young man might be considered good looking. He had the strong jaw going for him, mischievous emerald eyes and a smile that could kill anyone. There were even scatter of freckles around his nose.

"I am."

The man nodded his head, took a seat beside her and stared up at the sky. "You don't really like to talk, do you?"

"Would you like to talk before you have to fight against your classmate, Freckles?"

"Freckles?" The man laughed. "You know you aren't that creative when it comes to insulting nicknames…Whiskers."

She scowled at the man, earning a larger grin from the young man. Why did everyone keep reminding her about the fact that there were whiskers on her cheeks? It was not like she asked for it. If someone had to insult her then they should try to insult her height or her hair.

"Why the hell are you here? Aren't you supposed to be interviewing people? Or something?"

There was no way that Freckles could be a hero.

The man raised his eyebrows before bursting out in laughter, earning a raised eyebrow from the blond-haired girl. Why did he find her words funny? He was a reporter, wasn't he? All the heroes that she saw, were wearing their work outfits. There was no chance a hero would dare to wear such ordinary clothes since this was their chance to have more publicity.

"I don't find it interesting to interview anyone before the winner becomes obvious," The man shrugged his shoulders. "But enough about me. What about you, kiddo? You don't seem to be happy even though you have reached this far. Most kids would be enjoying and basking in this glory."

The blue eyed girl snorted. "You think I'm going to tell a stranger about my problems? What am I…stupid?"

The red haired man curled his lips into a smile, giving her a look that told her that he thought about her pain. She grimaced and stared up at the sky, ignoring the knowing looks of the young man beside her. How could he understand her feelings? It was not like he learned that his classmate had been abused by his parents.

"You know sometimes the best advice you can get is from a stranger." The man informed her, wrapping his arms around his head. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to but I'm here if you want a listening ear."

"Why the hell do you care about my troubles? Most people give a shit about themselves."

"When you see, someone is in trouble then it is only right to give a shit about them." The man replied. "You know it is cruel to turn a person away when they need help."

There was a bitterness in the man's voice that made Naruto wonder if the man had experience such pain before. The curious part of her wanted to ask him about his problems, but a larger part of her could only think about the knowledge she gained from overhearing her classmates talk. Could she actually tell him about what she heard? He could give advice but this was not her problem to tell.

At the same time, she was confused.

"Would you still help someone even if they hadn't confided to you but you know they are in pain? Or do you think it is stupid?" The man raised his eyebrows but the girl could only clasp her hands together. "I mean it is stupid to try to talk to someone even though you never experienced their pain, right? They might yell at you, might call you names and might even bring up facts that you just want to ignore."

The green eyed man rubbed his chin. "Stupid? I don't think it is stupid to try and help someone even though you could never understand their pain. It shows that you care about them, don't you think? Wouldn't it be worse if you just stood there and never did anything about it? Even if they call you names, it just might be a sign that they are still hurting from their pain."

"So you think I should help them?"

"That is what a good hero would do," The man frowned and corrected himself. "When I mean a good hero, I mean a hero that cares about the people. I don't mean the heroes that are only in it for the fame and glory…those people can't really be considered heroes. It is easy to be a professional hero but it is difficult to be a proper hero."

"What do you mean?"

"I will answer your question another day, Uzumaki Naruto because I have no doubt that we are going to meet again." The man replied, standing up from his spot. He rubbed the dirt off his pants before making his way towards the stadium.

"What makes you so certain that we will meet!" She yelled at the retreating man.

The red haired man twisted his head and cracked a grin. "Because I say so, Whiskers."

What the hell just happened?

* * *

"It's time for the one-on-one tournament!"

Those were the words that the announcer declared as Naruto took her seat beside Jirou. It was a good thing that her battle with Kaminari was the third round in the series of battle. This would give her enough time to analyze her opponents move. It would give her enough time to think about how she could help Todoroki. A good old fashion punch was not going to help, not when her classmate must have been physically abused by his fathers.

She was not going to remind him about his father, not when he spent most of his life being tormented by the man.

"Are you okay, Naru-chan?" Jirou asked.

The blond haired girl nodded. "Just a little bit nervous about the match."

Her classmate raised her eyebrows at her, giving her a look of disbelief. Why was it so hard for her to believe? Just because she won the obstacle race, doesn't mean that she couldn't worry about the matchup. If she won against Kaminari then she might be up against either Izuku or Shouto. While Izuku would not be a problem for her, it was Shouto that would be her concern.

She was not going to win until she got the boy to stop comparing himself to his father.

"It should be Kaminari that should be nervous, not you." Jirou pointed out. "You nearly knocked him out after Momo told you that it was Mineta and his idea for us to wear the stupid cheerleader's outfit."

The girl felt her eyebrows twitched at the reminder of the terrible cheerleader uniforms that Momo forced her to wear. For the last ten years of her life, Naruto avoided anything to do with skirts, tank tops or anything remotely girly and that boy managed to make her wear a skirt. She could only imagine the way the people of Konoha would mock her for going back on her oath of never wearing a skirt.

"Jirou, why did you have to remind her!" Kaminari hissed.

"Because you were an ass to make us wear those uniforms," Jirou replied instantly. "Did you know that we had to force Naruto to wear this thing because you made it seem like it was mandatory for all the girls to wear it. She shouldn't be forced to wear something that she didn't want to wear. It is her right to wear whatever she wants."

"We just wanted to see what you guys would look like if you wear a cheerleader's outfit," Kaminari muttered.

The blond haired girl growled. "You have an imagination so use it, Sparky. You didn't have to make us look like a laughing stock to everyone in the arena."

The boy flinched at those words, which almost made Naruto feel guilty for saying those words. However, the reminder of their teacher's shock destroyed any guilt that she had. What was the benefit of making her wear such short skirts? She felt her face grow hot as she recalled the way that some of the boys stared at her.

Naruto should be comfortable with her own skin since she was a former kunoichi but even as a kunoichi, she never felt comfortable with some of the acts. She acted like she had the confidence but she never really had the confidence that Ino or even Sakura had. Naruto really tried but it was hard to be confident when all she could recall were the words of her former bullies.

"The First Match! Making a weird face despite his excellent performance, it is Midoriya Izuku!" Present Mic declared as their classmate walked out of the tunnels with a determined look on his face. "He is going against Hitoshi Shinso from the General Studies Course."

Where the hell had she seen Izuku's opponent? Naruto could not help but ask herself as Present Mic informed them the rules of the tournament. She knew she had seen him somewhere. This was definitely not the first time that she caught sight of him during the Sports Festival. Did she saw him at work? No, her workplace was far away from the school.

'… _Those of us who didn't make the Hero Course are stuck in General Studies and the other tracks."_

How the hell could she forget about the Ferret? The bastard was the reason that she was late for work. It was actually quite amazing that the guy came this far but it also made her wonder, what his quirk could be. From what Naruto had observed about the Sports Festival, it favored people with flashy quirks or anything physical. For the boy come this far told her that he was amazing.

Well, he had to be since no one realized that he took the other headbands.

"I give up, huh?" The boy yelled, earning whispers from the crowds around her. "Do you get it, Midoriya Izuku? The battle is going to be a test of your strength of will. If you have got any kind of vision for your future then there is no sense in worrying about how you get there. Just like that _**monkey**_ , babbling about his stupid pride."

Naruto could barely hear the yells of the announcer as he told the two boys to get ready for their battle. The only thing she could feel was the throbbing vein in her forehead and the rage that threatened to consume her. Did the bastard really insult their classmate? Did he not understand that it matters to her classmate that he won the thing fair and square?

She almost hoped that Izuku did not win this match because Naruto was tempted to smash her fist against the Ferret's face.

"Naru-chan, you need to calm down," Momo said as the boy continued to taunt their classmate.

"How the hell can I calm down when he acts like that?" She muttered, folding her arms against her chest. "He is insulting Ojiro-san because he decided to drop out of the competition. If Midoriya wasn't there then you could bet your ass that I will pummel him down."

"Uzumaki-san, I feel fine about this." Ojiro said, twisting his head to look at her. He gave her a small smile. "I'm sure that Midoriya will have no problem in defeating the guy…as long as he listens to my advice."

 _Advice? Why the hell would Midoriya need advice against the boy?_ Naruto asked herself as the purple-haired boy continued to taunt their classmate about how stupid Ojiro was to throw his chance away. Was there something that she was not catching? Was the boy's quirk so dangerous that Midoriya needed advice? It made her heart thud at the notion.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY!" Midoriya yelled, charging after the boy.

Just as soon as her classmate finished saying those words, he froze. It was not the frozen expression of someone that made a mistake. If anything the expression on the green haired boy reminded Naruto of Sakura. It reminded her of the match between Sakura and Ino, when her fellow blonde had managed to get control of her former teammate's body.

Could it be…

"Ojiro-san, does Ferret's quirk have anything to do with mind control?" Naruto asked her classmate.

The blond boy nodded. "You caught on quick, Uzumaki-san. I didn't realize that he was controlling me until I brushed passed one of the students in class 1B."

The girl nibbled her lips at those words, stared down at her frozen classmate and then to the cameras, which surrounded them. If she had a tiny rock with her then it would be possible for her to snap her classmate out of it, but Naruto never stopped to think about taking one. There had to be another way to stop them. Another way to snap him out of this.

She looked down at the necklace that Tsunade gave her. Could she? She shook her head. She might feel hurt about what the village people did to her but Naruto could never throw away the first sincere gift from her. Tsunade gave her this because she managed to make her throw a real punch.

If she could not throw then maybe she could try yelling.

"OI MIDORIYA! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING, STANDING THERE LIKE A COWARD!" Everyone looked at her like she was insane but Naruto could only fix her eyes on her frozen classmate. The boy twitched, an indication that maybe her words were working.

"It seems like Uzumaki is trying to snap Midoriya out of his trance!" Present Mic declared. "Is that even allowed?"

"She is not physically stopping the fight so this could be considered a cheer," Aizawa stated as Midoriya twisted his body away from his opponent. "So if we were to go with technicalities then yes, it is allowed."

"Are you seriously going to allow yourself to be defeated because some bastard is using mind control! Where is the kid that insisted he was going to become a hero even when everyone told him that he had no chance!" Naruto bellowed, earning whispers from her classmates and the surrounding heroes around them.

She might sound like an idiot but Naruto was not going to allow the boy to throw his chance away.

"Naru-chan, there is no use for you to yell at him!" Momo whispered, trying to pull her down. "The boy's quirk is going to be difficult for him to break out of."

"It is not difficult!" Naruto yelled to the crowds, hoping that a small part of Midoriya was listening to her. "If Midoriya was really serious about winning the whole thing then he would have the willpower to break himself out! If _**she**_ could do it then Midoriya can! No one wants to be a hero more than him! Now Midoriya, snap yourself out of it or else I will call you the wimp that doesn't deserve to be a hero!"

Everyone stared at her like she was insane for saying those words but Naruto would not take her words back. Sakura was able to draw with Ino even though the odds were against her. Her former teammate could not have the same willpower as her friend. How many times had she caught sight of the boy jogging? How many times had she heard him insist that he was going to become a hero?

She was not going to let him lose his chance because of something as minor as this.

"It seems like Uzumaki's encouraging words—wait can you even call it encouraging since she just basically insulted her classmate?" Present Mic asked. "Anyways, Uzumaki's encouraging words must have worked since Midoriya stopped walking!"

Naruto felt her shoulders relax at those words, but her shoulders tensed up when she caught sight of her classmate's fingers. They were bruised, which meant that the boy must have used his quirk. It was noticed by Present Mic since the man wondered out loud, if it had been her words or if he had smashed his fingers to shake off the brain washing.

She wanted to think that it was both.

* * *

 **Konoha**

"It seems like Naruto hasn't changed completely."

Kakashi could only nod his head as he stared at the green haired boy in the screen. His student's behavior hadn't changed to the point that she was unrecognizable, which was a good thing. Maybe there was a chance that the girl could be reasoned with but there was a chance that it would be hard to reason with her. The yells of his student were almost similar to the words that she yelled at Sakura, when she was against Ino.

However, it seemed like Naruto might identify herself with the green haired boy. After all, Kakashi could see some eerily resemblance between them when it came to behavior. The moment the purple haired boy insulted the classmate was the moment that the Midoriya kid lost calm. This had been the same reaction Naruto made when Neji insulted Hinata.

Naruto had to hold back so she didn't murder the kid.

"You know it is a good thing that they have a way to break out of the kid's jutsu," one jounin commented. "If he was up against a Yamanaka then he would not be as lucky."

"That isn't true." Another jounin commented. "He would also have to injure himself if the Yamanaka clan member used the Mind Body Switch Jutsu."

Kakashi could only ignore the debate between the two men, choosing to focus on the match in the television. Now that the green haired boy was out of the boy's control, he had chosen to remain silent. A smart decision, he mused to himself as the purple-haired boy continued to complain about the unfairness of life. He almost felt sorry for the kid but then he recalled Naruto.

The girl failed the genin exams three times but not once did she complain about how the exams were rigged against her. Now that he thought about it, Sakura and Sasuke kept reminding the girl that she failed the exams three times.

Naruto always said that it was not her fault that they kept giving her the clone jutsu.

How could the girl keep getting the same jutsu for all three exams? Now that he also thought about it, the fact that Naruto became a representative for her school year meant that the girl could do well in school. There was no way that his student could have only tried to do well in school when she went to a different country. He knew Naruto well enough to know that the girl always gave it her all.

Something was not making sense.

He might need to ask Iruka if he could have a look at the girl's past tests, because something told him that there were a lot of reasons for Naruto to leave the village.

Reasons that he should have picked up on.

* * *

Q&A:

Q: Will there ever be any Naruto punch therapy jutsu on Todoroki?

A: As of now, no.

Q: Will you show Sasuke watching Naruto?

A: No because I am thinking of leaving Sasuke in the dark about what happened to Naruto.

* * *

A/N: Please review and tell me what you think


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N: I want to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows. I also want to thank everyone that reviewed the last chapter.**

* * *

" _I'm not a monster! I'm Uzumaki Naruto and I'm the girl that is going to become the first female Hokage!"_

Naruto could only guess the reason that the words of her six year old self echoed in her ears when Ferret declared his dreams to the whole world. Perhaps it was because she understood his frustrations about the unfairness of life or maybe it was the fact that his words reminded her of a time, when she had no problems with declaring her wish.

At the age of six, she decided that she was going to become Hokage. For six years of her life, she wanted to wear the beautiful white robes of the leader and rub in everyone's faces about how the unloved kid could become their leader. The last two years, she lived under a haze—uncertain about what to do with her life, afraid to live her life. Now she decided to become a hero but what was her dream?

What did she want now?

"Naru-chan, you are very quiet." Momo's gentle voice broke her out of her thoughts. Her black eyes shone with concern, almost reminding her of pale milky eyes which once stared at her with the same emotions. "Is everything okay?"

"The Ferret's words resonated with me."

The bitterness in his words pierced through her heart, opening wounds and memories that Naruto thought she healed from. It was the desperation, the desire for someone to acknowledge the goodness in his quirk which brought up those memories. Perhaps the boy had a good reason for wanting to become a hero, but she never really had a good reason for becoming a kunoichi.

Unless if you counted getting respect as a good reason.

" _Like a dumb bitch like you can become Hokage."_

She slipped her fingers into her pockets, standing up from her seat and made her way towards the dark tunnels. When thoughts and memories of the past threatened to consume her then it would be better for her to walk away. Better to walk away then to have a breakdown during a match if you asked her. Ero-Sennin would tell her to talk about it but it was just too soon.

She did not know if she would ever be ready to talk about the true extent of the mental and emotional damage done on her.

The bright lights of the tunnels, the lingering scent of sweat and the marble floors steadied her as she made her way through the tunnels. It anchored her to the reality of her life, stopping her from allowing the cruel words of the civilian boys from consuming her.

"You disgrace me, Shouto."

Naruto stopped walking when the echoes of a gruff voice drummed against her ears. Disgrace me? It sounded like the words of a disappointed father, but the girl could not hear sincere disappointment. She could feel the anger wrapped around those words. The frustration in them and a large part of her took pleasure for the man's fury.

The small part of her, the orphan part of her, shuddered in fear from the rage emitting from them.

"You could have crushed both the obstacle course and the cavalry battle if you had used your left side," Endeavour growled.

 _This isn't any of your business._ Naruto strode down the hallway, navigating her way towards the source of the voice. _But I don't want to stand there and not do anything._ The reporter was right when he said that it was cruel to turn a person away when they needed help. How many times had the villagers watch her suffer? How many times did the shinobi scoff at her? She was better than them.

She needed to be better than them.

"You should grow up Shouto and stop rebelling like you are some petulant child." The man ranted. "You need remember that your duty is to surpass All Might. You are different from your brothers and sister! You're my greatest creation!"

"He is your son, Bastard! Not a tool for you to use!"

Turquoise eyes turned towards her, startled at her presence while Shouto fixed his blank eyes on her. There was a temptation to drop her eyes, to blush and mutter an apology for her rudness but Naruto squashed it down. She never apologized for her actions in Konoha. It was the one thing Sakura used to complain about but she took pride in it.

Especially now when cruel eyes stared at her like she was some kind of bug.

"You are the girl with the cloning quirk." The number two hero stated, regarding her with eyes of distaste. Naruto curled her lips into a thin line while Shouto flickered his eyes at her. A brief look of concern flashed in the turquoise and grey eyes before being schooled to a blank expression. "This is between Shouto and me."

"It is my business too since Shouto is my classmate." The man growled at her words but Naruto narrowed her eyes at him. "You know I heard from everyone that you are the only hero that tries to surpass All Might, but I wonder how everyone would feel if they knew that you gave up."

"You don't know a thing what I…"

"If I can't get stronger then I will use someone else! If someone is catching up to me then why don't I put them in their place? If I can't get stronger then I will go to someone else who will make me stronger!" Naruto snarled, clenching her hands into a fist. Turquoise eyes widened at her cruel words while her classmate stared at her with confusion. She pushed down the memories of the Valley End—this was not the time for her past to come out. "I know men like you. You are the men that will do anything to get to your goals even if it means hurting the people around you, the people who are supposed to care for you."

" _Konoha won't make me stronger, Dobe."_

The past haunted her when she stared into the man's cruel eyes.

"The words you are telling to Shouto are the words of a man that gave up on getting to his goals." The hero's eyes narrowed at her declaration but Naruto kept her head high. _I am the girl that faced a fellow jinchuuriki and survived; a man throwing a tantrum is a child's play._ "If Shouto surpass All Might then you won't earn anything because Shouto is not you. He is not an extension of yourself…he is his own person."

' _Old man, am I really a monster like Mizuki-sensei claimed?"_

" _You're Uzumaki Naruto, a kunoichi from Konoha. You are not the demon, you are its jailor and don't let anyone tell you otherwise."_

Shouto might not have a man like the Hokage to guide him or protect him like she did, but Naruto would do her best to protect her classmate.

* * *

"The wait is over!"

Naruto poked her fingers into her ears as their teacher's voice boomed at the arena. _What is the point of him having a microphone if he is just going to yell at it?_ Even now, she could feel the sides of her head throbbing at having his voice blasted at her eardrum. It felt like a curse to have slightly better senses than the people around her when there are people like Present Mic.

"The cream of the crop! Yet this guy is somehow still as plain as they can come! Sero Hanta from the Hero Course!" Sero walked out of the tunnel, cracking his fingers and stared at his opponent with a nervous look on his face. "Versus one of the strongest students in their year! Todoroki Shouto, also from the Hero Course!"

Even from her seat, Naruto could feel the anger, the hurt, confusion but most of all the pain that radiated from her classmate. Did her words allow him to start thinking for himself? Or was he going to ignore her words? There was no telling if he would accept her words. It was not going to be easy for someone, who went through hell to change their way of thinking.

Not unless she punched him in the face but Naruto did not want to do it to him.

"I don't really feel like winning," Sero declared, stretching his arms as Midnight declared that the match had begun. "But I also don't like losing!"

The boy swung his arms, shooting tape towards his opponent. He wrapped their classmate like a present, swinging him around like a yo-yo. Naruto caught sight of the confusion, the annoyance in her classmate's eyes but the one emotion which stood out to her was the anger. For a moment, the girl saw the eerily resemblance between Endeavour and her classmate.

It worried her.

"He is trying to push him out with a surprise attack!" Present Mic declared as the boy continued to swing his opponent around. "This is probably the best strategy for him! Sero is giving it his all!"

Naruto's teeth started to chatter as ice began to flood the stadium, forming spikes as Shouto encased Sero in an ice glacier. The coldness nipped at her skin but the coldness could not compare to the one growing inside of her. Her eyes remained fix on the glacier in front of her, not bothering to look away as her classmates whispered to each other about how amazing their classmate was.

"Shouto Todoroki wins!" Midnight shivered.

Naruto pressed her finger against her chin as the ice slowly melted, revealing a collapsed Sero and a mournful Todoroki, who had a blanket of stream wrapped around him as he placed his left hand on the boy. The people around them cheered, smiling and congratulating her two classmates for the match and their effort. Yet even from her spot, it felt like there were a thousand knives poking her classmate.

 _Could my words ever reach him?_

* * *

 **Konoha**

"Hinata-neesama, you are back from your mission!"

Hinata should feel happy to hear the cheerful voice of her younger sister but the tone of worry told her that her sister was worried about something. She slipped out of her shoes and frowned when her baby sister tried to block her from the living room. Suspicion rose in her chest when the hint of worry and fear radiated from her sister's

" _With the arena all thawed out, it is time for the next match!"_ The television boomed, showing an overview of the arena. _Was it that time of the year again?_ Hinata had never kept an eye on the calendar, not unless it was one of her teammate's birthday, the anniversary of Naruto's disappearance or her best friend's birthday. " _It is Class A's powerhouse! The girl might look short but don't let her appearance fool you! It is Uzumaki Naruto! She is going against the sparking killing boy, Kaminari Denki!"_

The girl gently pushed her sister away from the door, dashing towards the television, where a solemn Naruto stared at a nervous blond haired boy. _She is fine. Naruto isn't dead._ Hinata sunk down in front of the screen, ignoring the concerned look from her younger sister. She placed her slender fingers against the television screen, tracing the appearance of her best friend.

"When did this happen?" She felt her lips draw into a thin line at the sight of the sadness radiating from her best friend's eyes. _I warned Sasuke about what I would do to him if he hurt her._ When they were kids, Naruto's sadness radiated like a small river but now as the camera zoomed at her, it felt like her friend was drowning in a sea of it.

"Today." Hanabi placed her hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay, Hinata-neesama? I know that you spend nearly three years looking for her."

Hinata tore her eyes away from the television and stared at her younger sister, who held her gaze. The two of them had never been close when they were younger, not when Hanabi used to look down on her for being weak. In the last four years, they became close because of the blond haired girl on the television. Naruto had been the one to knock sense into her sister.

Naruto was the reason that she continued to preserve in being a ninja.

"I am glad that my best friend is alive." She took a deep breath, trying to steady the flood of emotions which threatened to consume her. "Everyone wants to bring her back but I just wanted to know if she is alive. You don't know what it was like visiting her in the hospital bed and seeing those blank eyes staring at you. I was afraid that I was going to lose her."

Her sister's eyes widened at her admission but the blue haired girl focused her attention on the screen. When the announcer declared that the match had begun, her best friend charged towards the blond haired boy. Her lips twitched when the boy tried to gather lightening, only for him to be knocked out by a single punch from Naruto.

"What do you mean?"

Hinata closed her eyes and dug her finger into her arm as the memories of the days leading to her friend's disappearance washed over her. The usual brightness, which shone in her friend's eyes, had been dulled down to the point that Naruto's eyes seemed lifeless. Whenever she tried to talk to her friend, it felt like she had been talking to a wall. There had been no acknowledgment, no reply or anything.

It felt like her friend did not even realize that she was there.

"The mission ruined her," Hinata whispered as the announcer declared Naruto as the winner. "I might have been Naru-chan best friend but my bond with her is different from the bond she shared with _Sasuke_."

She knew the girl cared for her just as much as Hinata cared for her, but their bond had been of a close friendship and in her case, also admiration. However, Sasuke had always been a different story. The two of them trained together, argued together and even teased each other in their own way. Naruto loved Sasuke as a brother but she knew that the boy loved Naruto, the same way that Hinata loved Kiba.

"Why aren't you angry with her?" Lavender eyes stared at her with confusion. "Why are you angrier with the Uchiha than with Naru-neechan? She also abandoned the village."

Hinata wrapped her arms around her knees, placed her head on top of her knees and memorized her friend's face as she carried her unconscious opponent out of the arena. Sadness radiated in her friend's eyes but not the same crippling sadness that Hinata saw in the hospital. It was the sadness of a friend who seemed to be torn apart about something.

"Hinata-neesama."

"I am upset that Naruto didn't try to contact me," Hinata unwrapped her arms and drew her younger sister close to her. "But I know Naru-chan well enough to know that she had her reasons for not contacting me. I know her well enough that she would never abandon the village unless something pushed her to do this. Sasuke abandoned the village and put everyone at risk. We were lucky that Neji-niisan and Naru-chan came out alive because if they hadn't come back then I would have lost them both."

She tightened her grip on her sister as the words of the villagers echoed in her ears. _How could_ _ **she**_ _come back? And not the Uchiha? It would be better if she died._ Hinata heard those words being whispered by the nurses whenever she visited her friend. There had been times when she wanted to snap at them, to tell them that it was better for Naruto to come back then Sasuke.

Yet the words always died down in her mouth and Hinata could never gain the courage to tell them her thoughts.

It was her fault for not having the courage to speak up.

* * *

"Why did you say those words?"

Shouto's words hung in the air. There was no anger, no accusation—only plain old curiosity. It was the opposite to what Naruto imagined her classmate would say to her. She imagined a lot of emotions running through her classmate but not the quietness and curiosity. It was almost maddening because she only knew how to deal with people's anger but not quietness.

She tucked a strand of her blond hair. "Because it seemed like the bastard needed someone to yell at him."

"You should have been focused on your match." He kept his voice even but his eyes did not meet with hers. "You don't need to get yourself involved with my business."

Naruto leaned against her chair. "You are right I don't need to get involved with your messed-up father but I can't ignore the things that he said to you. I knew you were messed up but I didn't realize how messed up your life was until you talked to Midoriya!"

She felt her cheeks burned as she realized the words that she vomited out to her classmate. The boy froze, stared at her with such wide eyes that reminded her of an owl. He quickly schooled his expression to a blank expression, not giving her even a glimpse of the emotions that run through his mind.

"How much did you hear?"

"I heard enough." Naruto evaded his searching gaze. "Look I didn't mean to overhear but you and Midoriya didn't exactly keep your conversation quiet."

Shouto thinned his lips at her response, looking almost disappointed with her for listening in on his private conversation. She did feel pangs of guiltiness for listening in on his conversation. It was not her business to listen in but the conversation had drawn her in like a moth to a flame. It was not like she had been the only one to hear his conversation.

Bakugou also listened in.

"You know you aren't your father." She finally said, breaking the silence between them. "You don't have his quirk because that is all you. You don't look like him because let us be honest, your Dad looks kind of an ass and I am an expert when it comes to assholes. I mean you must take after your Mum because you can be nice and you are pretty boy, which isn't something that you got from your Dad. I need to shut up soon…"

The babbling kept on going and going to the point that Naruto felt like she was starting to have a motor mouth. Once the words started coming out, the blond haired girl could not find the brake to stop the word vomit from her mouth. Maybe if she just kept vomiting out her thoughts then the boy might understand where she was trying to go with this.

She felt the world vomit slowing down at the expression on her classmate's face. It was not a smile or a smirk. It was not even a scowl of annoyance, which he had the right to do since her word vomit must be irritating to him. It was like he did not know how to react to her words or emotions. It was almost like he was confused at what to do.

"You should focus on your problems instead of meddling with other people's problems." Shouto finally said.

Naruto felt her lips twitch at the comment. She stood up from her seat, eyes fixed on the tightness of her classmate's fist and the emotions swirling through his eyes. There were a few emotions she could read: anger, confusion, and hints of amusement ( _a side effect from the babbling_ , she reasoned) but there was an emotion that she could not read.

She didn't know whether she couldn't read it or if she was in denial.

(Years later, she would put it down as denial)

* * *

Q&A

 **Q: Are the Elemental Countries somewhere in Polynesia?**

 _A: Yes, they are nearly isolated from the outside world._

 **Q: Do they think Japan is fictional?**

 _A: Yes_

 **Q: Will Izuku be the one to help Todoroki?**

 _A: Naruto and Izuku will both help Todoroki._

 **Q: Will I include the Akatsuki?**  
 _A: Yes because I think it will make the story more interesting_

 **Q: Was that green eyed, red haired man the Uzushiokage? Is he another Uzumaki?**

 _A: Yes, he is the Uzushiokage but his backstory will be a bit more complicated than just being another Uzumaki related to Naruto._

 **Q: Will the Konoha nin come after Naruto?**

 _A: Yes_

 **Q: Naruto won't return to Konoha right?**  
 _A: She might not want to return to Konoha but it does not mean that the village council won't try to force her to come back to the village._

* * *

 **A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter especially the conversation between Naruto and Todoroki.**


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N: I want to thank everyone that added this story to their favorites and follows as well as everyone that reviewed the last couple of chapters.**

 **Chapter 18**

 _My schoolmates have so much more drive than the kids in the Academy._

The more and more Naruto watched the matches between her classmates and their competitors, the more she realized the difference between them and her past classmates. In the academy, the boys were the ones that wanted to be a ninja while most of the girls seemed to be there for the boys. Everyone in her course strived to be the best hero.

It was not just her course. It was the other courses too that seemed to be striving to their goals. That girl from the support course played Iida because she wanted people to see her inventions. _No one in the Academy had the same drive as them._ Was it because of the difference in the age? They had been just little kids when they decided to become killers.

These people were older and knew a little bit better about what they were signing up for.

They probably had better reason for becoming a hero.

"I'm more worried about this match than the other matches." Tsuyu's concerned voice brought Naruto back to the reality of the next match. Blue eyes glanced at her companion, who had her finger placed against her chin. "Ochako-chan is going to go against Bakugou."

The whiskered girl grimaced. _This is going to be a tough match for Ochako._ There was no denying about the difference in skill but Naruto knew the girl did have a powerful quirk. It might not seem like much to other people but if done right, Ochako could be a force to be reckon with.

The ability to make things float was a very dangerous ability. If she could touch a person than there was a possibility that the person would float away. The girl could lift up a lot of rocks, but at the same time she could sink the rocks down like a meator shower. If it had been a jutsu, there would be no doubt that it would be an S-rank Jutsu.

"I feel sorry for Ochako," Ejirou muttered. "Bakugou isn't going to be an easy opponent."

Naruto thinned her lips. "You are right but Ochako isn't going to be easy for Bakugou too."

Several eyes turned their attention on her. For a brief moment, she recalled the Academy's days when everyone looked at her like she was stupid for deciding to become Hokage. It was not the same cruel judgmental eyes but the eyes of people that thought she was wrong. It was not like her classmates did not think Ochako was good but they knew Bakugou was good.

He had to be since he came second in their Entrance Exam.

"Naruto, you know that she is going to go against Bakugou." The red haired boy flickered his eyes towards Bakugou, who stood in the arena with a scowl on his face. "He isn't going to go easy on her."

Ochako stood in the arena with her eyebrows furrowed together and a determined look on her face. _She is not going to go down without a fight._ Naruto knew this because she knew the looks of the people that did not give a shit about their dreams. In the past couple of hours, she came to realize one thing about her classmates: all of them probably had a good reason for becoming a hero.

"I know who her opponent is but I also know that Ochako isn't going to go down without giving her all." Her classmates blinked at her. She kept her head held high, stared at the arena and then to her confused classmates. "I don't know Ochako well and I don't know why she wants to be a hero but I can see a girl that is willing to get to the top. I don't see someone that is going to do this tournament without putting a hundred percent of their effort."

 _I won't give up._

Those four words were the words Hinata declared when Neji told her to give up. Those were the same four words which shone through her classmate's eyes as Ochako stared at her opponent. It almost brought a bitter taste to Naruto's throat as the memory of the past flooded into her mind.

"He has been a celebrity since his middle school days," Present Mic declared. "He is a boy, who has a face that only a mother could love. It is Bakugou Katsuki of the Hero Course!"

Naruto giggled at the slight insult thrown by Present Mic, earning several wide eyes from everyone in their class. They swirled their head at her. All of them had a large smile playing on their faces with a few even looking at her with wonder. Only one boy stared at her with a contemplating look.

Shouto stared at her like he didn't know what to make of it.

"Did you just giggle, Naruto?" Kaminari asked.

The blue eyed girl flushed a light red. "I can't help it since he is telling the truth about Bakugou's appearance. I just didn't think he was willing to voice out everyone's thoughts. By the way, what is wrong with me giggling? I should be allowed to giggle."

"There is nothing wrong with you giggling, Uzumaki," Emerald eyes hesitated before continuing. "I think what was surprising is the fact that you did it. We just haven't seen you make that sound before."

"It suits you!" Ejirou declared. "You really should laugh more. Todoroki wasn't kidding when he said that you look pretty when you are happy."

Naruto felt her face heating up at the reminder of her classmate's words. _I wanted to forget about that comment._ Ejirou laughed while Mina stared at her and Todoroki with hearts in her eyes. She hid her face behind her hands, hoping and praying that the redness was hidden from all her classmates.

"He is going to go against my favorite!" Several people from the crowd booed at this declaration but this must not have fazed their teacher since he continued with the commentary. "Ochako Uraraka, who is also from the hero course."

Naruto peaked from the gaps of her finger before closing her eyes again. _What the hell was wrong with me? I'm acting like Hinata._ It was not like her to become embarrass when a guy stared at her. It should not make her heart race when Todoroki looked at her. She should be able to look at a guy without having her face become like a tomato.

An elbow nudged against her ribs. She forced herself to lower her hands and look at the source. Caramel eyes twinkled with mischief, almost reminding her of pale blue eyes which twinkled when there was gossip. It almost brought a lump to Naruto's throat but she swallowed it.

"Does someone have a little crush on our resident pretty boy?" Mina whispered.

"NO!"

Several heads twirled around to look at them. Naruto bowed her head down while the pink-skinned girl crackled at the sight. _A crush! There is no way that I have a crush on a guy that I don't know well._ She pressed her hands against her heated face before glancing at Todoroki, who stared at Mina and her with confusion. A strange fluttering settled in her stomach when a pair of turquoise and grey eyes fixed on her.

She slapped her cheeks, curled her hands into a fist and focused her attention on the arena. _I only give a shit about my friend…I can't have any feelings for him._ If she had feelings for him then it would mean she was going to act stupid. It meant the constant blushing, stuttering and daydreaming for dates.

She couldn't afford to do that.

~X~

 **Akatsuki hideout**

"How the hell did that nine-tailed jinchuuriki end up in Japan?"

Itachi could only rub the sides of his head as Kisame stared at the television screen, which showed two teenagers getting ready to battle. He had just came back from a short shopping spree, only to be greeted by the sight of his partner watching the infamous Sport Festival.

The sight of Naruto Uzumaki fighting her opponent had been a surprise. There had been rumors about the girl being missing, about her running away from the village but Itachi had chalked it down as being nonsense. The girl had been a lot of things but she had always been loyal to the village and to his brother. There had been no chance that the girl had run away.

It seemed like he was wrong.

"Hn."

"I heard rumors about Japan but I always chalked it out as being some fucked up story to tell the civilians to give them hope," Kisame commented. The shark like man opened a bag of chips, flipped open his notebook and stared at the screen, where the brown haired girl seemed to be charging towards the boy. "During the war, the civilians would try to run away and say that they were going to find Japan. They thought that the country would give them a better place."

Itachi munched on his dango, stared blankly at the screen while Kisame commented about how he thought the civilians had been fools to think that the place existed. The camera zoomed around, showing the reaction of the crowds at the girl's foolishness to charge after the boy. Only one person's reaction stood out and that was Naruto.

He hadn't taken much notice about the girl's appearance but now as the camera lingered on her, Itachi took note about the difference in the girl. As a little girl, Naruto looked a lot like her father but now he could see the obvious hints of Aunt Kushina in her. He noticed that her eyes did not seem to have the same fiery glow as they did when she was younger.

They seemed to be faded.

 _BOOM._

"If Deidera was here, he would be screaming about how much he loved that boy." Kisame declared as the camera zoomed towards the arena, where the boy casted an explosion towards the girl. Itachi curled his lips but made no comment.

The blond-haired boy was wild but there were hints of intelligence in his eyes. The girl looked demure, or rather more innocent looking. However, the girl seemed determined. No fear seemed to be shining in her eyes as she braced herself for the explosions.

"The girl is a fool to go charging like that."

The black-haired man chewed on his dango while his partner popped down some notes about the battle. He didn't know what the girl bloodline trait might be, but he doubt that a determined child would go in without a plan. It did not seem like the girl's way.

"Hmm, I wonder if the jinchuuriki taught her that." Kisame muttered as the smoke cleared to show that the boy had destroyed the girl's jacket. There was a brief glimpse of shock in the boy's eyes but it soon disappeared. Barely a second later, he threw an explosion towards the girl, who tried to attack him from the back.

 _The boy has good reflexes for a civilian._ In his experience, most civilians would have been shock before trying to do the attack. The boy allowed himself to be taken by surprise for a second before forming a battle plan. If the boy had been a ninja then he might have been a formidable opponent because not many people could think on their feet.

" _Uraraka wastes no time."_ The camera zoomed in through the smoke to reveal the girl charging towards the boy again. " _She is going in for the attack."_

The boy caused another round of explosions towards the girl. _How does his Kekkai Genkai work?_ Deidera needed a special clay to make an explosion but it seemed like the kid didn't need to do anything. If anything, he could see that the boy was just using his hands to cause an explosions.

"The kid must have a special type of chemical inside his body which allows him to make an explosion." Kisame commented as the girl returned back to charging after the boy. Itachi hummed and took another bite of the dango as the camera zoomed to show the reactions of the crowd. Several of the students seemed to hid their faces against their hands while others stared at the match with horror.

Naruto stared at the match with respect shining through her eyes.

" _That is not the way someone who wants to be a hero acts!"_ A person from the audience screamed as another round of explosions took off. " _If you are so much stronger than her then just throw her out of the ring and finish it."_

 _Hero?_ Itachi curled his lips at the mention of that word. As a child, he used to watch the show with his older cousin Shisui. They had been shinobi-in-training but his cousin wanted to be a hero so badly like those kids in the television. Their parents would remind him that a shinobi can be like a hero but the boy pointed out that there was a difference between them.

It seemed like his cousin was right.

" _What is the big idea, Eraserhead!"_ The commenter yelled as a shuffling noise echoed through the mic and the television.

" _Is the one who said he is toying with her a professional hero? How many years of active duty do you have?"_ The other commentor's voice sounded calm but Itachi could hear the underlying anger and annoyance in his voice. " _If that is what you are taking away from this match then you can leave. There is no point for you to watch this match. Just go home and start looking at job-hunting websites. Uraraka had come this far and Bakugou knows this. He knows her strength and his caution shows that he recognizes her as a worthy opponent. It is exactly because he wants to win so badly that there is no room for carelessness or holding back."_

The commentor's voice might seem calm but the anger and pride in his voice told Itachi that the man understood those kids well. Even as the camera zoomed in onto those two kids, it was clear to see that the girl had a fiery look in her eye. A look that said she was not going to back down from her fight.

She would have made a wonderful kunoichi.

"It is a shame that the girl isn't a kunoichi." Itachi arched his eyebrow at his partner. "The girl might not be as strong as the boy but the girl has more drive than most kunoichi I have seen. They live in a time of peace but those kids have more drive than some of the shitty ninjas in this world."

The girl muttered a couple of words but it couldn't be heard in television. However, her words must have held some impact as the boy tensed up. The camera zoomed towards the sky, where several broken slabs of concrete floated in the air.

 _The girl had a Kekkai Genkai which_ _allowed her to control gravity._

" _It is a meteor storm!"_ The commenter yelled as the rocks hurled themselves to the ground. Despite his shock, the boy Bakugou caused several explosions to take off. When Itachi took a better inspection of the boy, he could see that the boy seemed to be wincing in pain.

" _What an explosion! Uraraka's secrete plan just went up in smoke!"_

With the plan destroyed, Itachi knew that the girl had no chance in winning her match.

 **~X~**

"U-Uzumaki-san, what are you doing here?"

Naruto chewed on her bottom lip as Ochako gave her a bright but confused smile. _Why am I here?_ She took a seat in front of her classmate, who had stitches and bandages covering her face. She should be focusing on her battle but instead she decided to see her classmate.

"I wanted to tell you that you did amazing in your match." Brown eyes widened at those words, which earned a small hesitant smile from the former kunoichi. "I know you must be disappointed in not winning your match but Ochako, you were able to show everyone that you weren't someone that they should underestimate. I'm kind of disappointed that I won't be able to fight you."

Her classmate's lips wobbled at those words.

Naruto felt her whole body tensed up. _Please don't let her cry. I have never been good with dealing with people that cry a lot._ She was good at making jokes, at pranks but she had never been good with dealing with other people's grief.

"I got carried away at the end," Ochako rubbed her eyes and looked down at her damaged P.E jacket. "I thought I could actually win against Bakugou." She gritted her teeth. "That guy is just too strong! I couldn't even put a scratch on him."

Naruto curled her lips into a tiny smile before taking a seat in front of her frustrated classmate. When was the last time she heard a girl admit that they were frustrated at not being strong? _I don't think I ever heard another girl say those words…or at least in the Academy._ Before she graduated from the Academy, all the girls had been so focused on getting the boy's attention.

It had been the case until the Chunin Exam.

"Ochako, you know that it is okay to fail." Naruto took hold of her classmate's hands and stared at the girl's large brown eyes. "A lot of people failed but it doesn't mean that they give up."

Her classmate sniffed. "That is easy for you to say, Naruto. You are strong and everything. You still have a chance to show those people about what you can do but I can't show them anything. They can't learn anything about me since I lost in my first match."

"That isn't true." Brown eyes stared at her with doubts, which earned a tiny smile from the blue eyed girl. "You know what they learn from your match? They learnt that you are a girl filled with a lot of brains and courage. They learnt that despite the odds being against you, you could make a plan that fooled your opponent. The scouts could see how much you wanted to win. They saw your drive and if no one wants to take you in then they are a fool."

Her classmate smiled but the smile on her face didn't really have any shine. _It won't be easy for someone to pull themselves from a slump especially if they were so close in winning the match._ A phone rang, indicating that it was time for her to leave her classmate alone.

Naruto gave a small smile to her classmate before slipping her hands into her pants' pockets and making her way towards the door. _Why do I want to become a hero?_ Ochako probably had an amazing reason for becoming a hero but what was her goal? What could be her new goal now? She could not live without a goal in her life. There had to be something that she could do to fill her void.

' _Why didn't you bring Sasuke back?'_

Even though it had been nearly three years, everything ended up going back to him.

 **~X~**

By the time, Naruto returned to the stands, the match between Midoriya and Shouto had already started. The cold wind generated from her classmate quirk nipped her skin. Their teacher had barely announced that the match had started before the guy used his quirk on Midoriya.

She chewed the inside of her cheek. Unlike the match with Sero, there was a desperation in Shouto's moves. There might not be any emotions radiating in her classmate's eyes, but the attack showed everything. _What does he need to prove? It is obvious that he isn't his father._ If someone as slow as her could see it then why couldn't he see it?

"Where have you been, Naruto?" Tsuyu asked.

"In the toilet." Concern and understanding shone through her classmate's eyes and Naruto wondered if maybe Tsuyu figured out that she had a breakdown. She had been doing that a lot. Their teacher's words broke her barriers and caused her to confront up all her bottled-up emotions.

It didn't help that Jiraiya encouraged her to let out all her emotions.

She slipped into her seat, wrapped her arms against her chest and observed the match. Chips of ice covered the arena, making it almost look like a winter land gone wrong. The childish part of her marveled at the destructive beauty but the weary part of her was concerned for the two boys. For the two boys, who in their own ways had affected her.

Bile rose to her throat when the wind disappeared, revealing Midoriya's bruised fingers. Four of his fingers had been bruised. All four of them were battered and broken. Unconsciously she glanced at her own small fingers. _How was he ever going to heal? He didn't have a Kyuubi like me._ Why was he so insane? Why hadn't he figure out another way?

"Only defending and dodging? It's taking a toll on you."

Shouto's words echoed through the arena but despite the arrogance in his words, the boy could not stop shivering. _Had he used too much of his quirk?_ Unlike her, they had a limit to the extent to which they could used their quirks. Did he really think that using the other half of his quirk would make him like his father? Did the idiot really think he could be a hero by using half of his quirk?

"It is expected that he is already stronger than most of the Pros since he is the son of the number two hero." A person behind her whispered.

 _Why can't they see that he is also strong because he is Shouto?_ She clenched her hands into a tight ball of fist. So, what if his father was the number two hero? He was a million times better than the bastard, he was forced to call a father. Endeavour did not care about the people but Shouto cared in his own way. He cared to the point that he was hurting himself.

Her heart thumped against her chest as Shouto continued on with his assault. Pain gripped her heart as the anger and the sadness continued to parade through his moves. _Why did this affect me? This means nothing to me._ She gulped down a lump as Midoriya destroyed the ice, effectively surprising everyone. She barely flinched as the cold air tickled her cheeks while everyone complained about it.

"Quirks are still just physical abilities." Midoriya yelling snapped her from her thoughts. "You must have a limit to how much of that cold you can bear! But then you could always use your left side to thaw yourself out, right?"

 _Was he trying to provoke him to use his left side?_ Naruto could feel a bubble of laughter threatening to escape from her lips while everyone stared at the boy. Her lips continued to twitch upwards as her classmate told him about the efforts that almost everyone had put into the match.

… _With everything that he got?_ _Oh Midoriya._ For a brief moment, pale milky eyes stared at her. For a moment of time, it felt like she was staring at herself and Neji. Would he see this match and remember like her? Would he recall how she told him that they could make their own destiny?

Her lips twitched.

Yes, she could make her own destiny.

She could live her life the way she wanted to live and the first way to do that was to start treating herself with the respect that she deserved.

* * *

Q&A:

Q: Are the Konoha 12 going to go in a mission to find Naruto?

A: Yes

Q: Have I stopped to think about the reactions of the civilian councils and the other villages?

A: Yes. Their reactions would be revealed later on to the story.

Q: Would Naruto ever tell her classmates about her past ?

A: Yes.

* * *

A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter.


	19. Chapter 19

A/N: I want to thank everyone that reviewed the last chapter and who added this story to their favourites and follows.

* * *

"You know you are quite amazing, Midoriya."

Midoriya blinked his eyes as Naruto stood beside him. The blond-haired girl had a tiny smile playing on her lips as she placed her hands on her lap.

"A-Amazing? I'm not amazing." Naruto laughed and Izuku could not help but flush a light shade of red. "Really I'm not amazing. I was a little bit of a reckless idiot when I fought with Todoroki-kun and I didn't even win."

His classmate tilted her head up to the sky. "Well considering the fact that you were a wimp during our middle school days, I think this is a huge improvement. You know you sounded cool when you told Todoroki those words."

Cool?

Did Naruto think he was cool? The smile on her lips told him that his classmate was serious about her words. He felt almost a slight warmth in his body at hearing her confirm those words. If there was one person's opinion that mattered to him beside All Might and Kac-chan then it would be Naruto. His classmate always defended him from everyone.

"Thank you."

His classmate nodded and stared at the television screen, where they were showing the match against Mina and Tokoyami. Izuku tilted his head and noticed that for the first time since the Sports Festival started that his classmate was showing some genuine emotions.

"I want to thank you."

He blinked his eyes at those words.

"W-What? Why?"

"You must have noticed that I've been acting like a complete weirdo since the Sports Festival began." Izuku hesitated before nodding his head. The girl smiled. "I would have continued acting like a complete weirdo if it wasn't for the fact that your match against Todoroki reminded me of a similar match that I saw. I have been living like a haze that I forgot my reason for joining U.A High."

There were more to the words but Izuku could not figure out what his classmate was trying to say.

"Uzumaki-san…"

"Naruto." His classmate reminded him. "Uzumaki-san sounds like I am being scolded by Hinata-chan's stuffy father when I don't behave in the appropriate manner. Anyways, I just want to say thank you for snapping me out of my funk."

"I-I should also thank you…"

The girl blinked her eyes and tilted her head at him. He licked his lips as he tried to gather the courage to say the words that he should have said when he entered U.A High. When everyone doubted him, his classmate believed in him. When he had been bullied, the girl protected him. If it hadn't been for her then things might not have been the same.

"I should thank you for believing in me."

Blue eyes softened at those words and for the first time, Izuku understood what Todoroki meant when he said that Naruto was pretty. In all his time with his classmate, he saw her as this amazing, strong person but not once did he stop to think about her personality or her appearance. He never really saw his classmate as a girl since she never acted like the other girls.

However, this look reminded him of this fact.

"Can I tell you a story about a boy that I once knew?" Izuku nodded and Naruto starred at the window. "In the village that I grew up, there was a special job that everyone wanted to do but this job required a quirk like mine. It is a good job so you can understand why everyone wanted it but it can be difficult if you don't have a quirk. This boy did not really have a quirk but despite that fact, the boy entered the school to obtain that job."

Izuku could almost see where Naruto was going with this story.

"When everyone told him that he was a hopeless idiot for thinking that he could ever obtain that job, he would laugh and tell them that he can do." Naruto quirked her lips. "I didn't really think much of him too but then an outsider teacher came and he saw that boy's determination. Do you know what that teacher did? He helped the boy reach his dreams, believed in him and you know what…Lee is one of the strongest people that I know. You know you reminded me of him."

"R-Really?"

The blond haired girl nodded. "Yes because you kept insisting to everyone that you will become a hero. You have all the odds against you but you were still able to become a hero…even though I wonder how the fuck you don't know that you had a quirk."

Izuku laughed nervously, which earned a narrowed eye from her classmate. Despite her looks, his classmate could be as sharp as an eagle when it came to details. It was something that their art teacher picked up when Naruto drew for them the first time.

"You know I'm not going to ask about your quirk since I have a match to worry about," Naruto quirked her lips into a tiny smile. "But you know what? I'm disappointed that I'm not going to fight you but maybe we can have a match when you have better control of your quirk."

"Naruto?"

"I just want to see who is stronger in terms of physical strength!" Naruto slipped her hands into her pockets. "Now if you excuse me, I think it is time for me to show the world that Naruto Uzumaki is the head bitch in charge."

For a brief moment, Izuku thought that Naruto sounded almost like a female version of Bakugou with her declaration.

It terrified him.

* * *

 **Sunagakure**

"Gaara, have you turn on the television?"

Gaara looked up from his pile of paperwork and glared at his older brother, who held the remote in his hand. _How could I be bothered to open the television when I have so much paperwork to do?_ When he decided to follow Naruto's path, he did not realize the hell that was paperwork. If it was not paperwork for approval of missions then it was for repairs.

Honestly, he never felt so exhausted in his life.

"No."

He blinked when his brother pushed the pile of paperwork to the sides. Gaara opened his mouth to protest, only to close it when Kankuro pointed to the television. _Wasn't that the Sports Festival? Why should I care about this?_ He felt his throat dried up when a determined Naruto walked up to the arena.

"Is that…"

"Naruto? Yup," his brother grinned. "I didn't realize that it was really Naruto until they announced that she was their year representative…"

Gaara tuned his brother out and focused his eyes on the girl, who changed his life. The last time he saw his friend, she had the eyes of someone that gave up on life. She had been someone that he could not recognize at all. He could recall how she didn't answer to any words. It had been the Uchiha's fault that his friend had been in the hospital.

It was the Uchiha's fault that Naruto looked like she wanted to die.

"Where does the Sports Festival take place?"

"If it wasn't for the fact that Father never allowed you to watch television then I would think you were a weirdo for not knowing," his brother admitted. "It takes place in Japan and to be honest no one really thought that it existed."

 _Japan?_

He never really heard of Japan but then again, there were a lot of things that he did not hear about. He didn't know Naruto went missing until Temari told him. Apparently, Nara thought that Suna sheltered the girl, which they would do if Naruto had come to them. However, the girl went to a place that no one knew about.

Gaara scratched the back of his neck and listened as the announcer declared the two opponents. There was a brightness in her eyes that did not exist before. _That was the Naruto I know._ The girl filled with life and love. The girl, who made him realize that his path had been wrong.

"Do you think that she has a boyfriend?" Kankuro asked.

The red head swirled his head to look at his brother, who had the decency to flinch at his question. Even though it had been nearly three years since the girl abandoned the village, his older brother still wanted that date that Naruto refused to give him. He felt his lips almost twitched as he recalled the insults that his friend threw at his older brother.

"I doubt it."

His brother arched his eyebrow but Gaara ignored the question. Instead, he focused his attention on his friend, who stood there with a confidence that she never had before. With the way that the sun shone, it almost made the girl look like an angel. _An angel? She saved me from my darkness which makes her like an angel to me_. Her opponent didn't look anything special or rather, Gaara doubt that the boy would stand a chance against his friend.

"Why would you doubt that she has a boyfriend?"

"Because she is like me." His brother furrowed his eyebrows but Gaara could only stare at his friend, who seemed poised for defense. Just like him, Naruto never knew what it meant to be loved. She had been hated by everyone in the village but unlike him, she ignored their hate. She pretended to be happy instead of becoming the thing that they hate.

Despite the fact that she avoided his fate, she still ended up being very naïve when it came to love. It was something he realized when he watched the way the Uchiha interacted with her. When he tried to visit Naruto in the hospital, the boy growled at him and told him to stay away. He saw that despite those cold eyes, there was a warmth in his eyes when it came to the girl.

A warmth that only appeared around Naruto, which meant that the boy did love her.

Though he did not love her enough if he tried to kill her.

"His Kekkai Genkai isn't really anything special," Kankuro commented as Naruto grabbed hold of her opponent's hand. The girl curled her lips into a tiny smirk before swinging her opponent out of the arena. "Those kids really have no chance against Naruto."

Gaara nodded while Naruto walked out of the arena. The girl had a sheepish smile as she talked to her opponent, who waved her apology off. Just from their interactions, he knew that his friend was happy in her new home. _Was leaving the village better for her? Did she realize the consequence of her actions?_ Knowing Naruto, she did not think about the consequence of her actions.

She probably made this decision without a lot of thinking.

If he was a better military leader, he would try to persuade the girl to come to Sunagakure. If he really thought about the village then he would think of a campaign to bring in more people with Kekai Genkai. However, he was also Naruto's friend and he only wanted her to be happy.

Yet a part of him felt uneasy about her new life.

"What are you thinking?"

"I want to visit Naruto." His brother swirled his head and looked at him like he was insane. "I am glad to know that she is fine but I just need to talk to her."

"You are the Kazekage." Kankuro reminded him. "You can't leave the village without taking some guards with you and there is also the Akatsuki to consider. Remember what Jiraiya told you when he came to fix your seal?"

Gaara rubbed his forehead. Kazekage. His life was no longer his own as there was now a whole village to protect. Yet, he wanted to see his friend. He wanted to thank her for helping him realize that the way he lived his life was wrong. He needed to see if she was really as happy as she portrayed herself on the television.

"Then you and Temari will go and check up on her."

"It is kind of scary to see you have this many emotion…" His brother muttered under his breath before making his way out of the door. Gaara ignored Kankuro's complaints and watched as the blue-eyed girl made her way towards the passageway.

He hoped that she really was as happy as she portrayed herself on television.

* * *

"Why are you here?"

Shouto watched as his blond-haired classmate took a seat in front of him. A small tired smile played on her lips along with a sense of understanding shining through her eyes. He chewed the inner corner of his cheek to prevent himself from saying anything harsh. This was not the time to let his anger out on her, not when she did nothing wrong.

"I wanted to check up on you," Naruto admitted. The girl rubbed the back of her neck—a habit which she always did when she felt nervous or uncomfortable. "Since we won't fight for another fourty minutes, I thought it would be the perfect time to check up on you. Besides I need you at your best when we fight and when I mean best, I mean in terms of emotions."

"I'm fine so you should focus on your match against me."

The girl frowned at his words but did not attempt to move from her spot. Instead, his classmate placed her small hands on the desk and stared at him. The usual blankness in her eyes was replaced with eyes that shone with so many emotions.

"You might be physically fine but you are not emotionally well." His classmate licked her lips and Shouto could not stop himself from looking at her lips. He shook his head. It was normal for someone to lick their lips especially if it is dried or if they don't know what to say. "Even though Midoriya said those words to you, I don't think it is enough to convince you to use your quirk."

The bicolored boy stared at his friend, who stared at him with so much confidence and concern. Concern for his mental and emotional wellbeing. Even though he had been a little bit harsh on her, Naruto did not seem to be one bit angry. How could she be like this? He stared at her for a good couple of seconds.

He felt his lips twitch when the girl started to play with her hair and her cheeks were turning red.

"You are right." He finally answered. "When I fought Midoriya, I forgot about my issues with my father. I recalled my mother's words as well as many other things."

Naruto nodded before putting her hands on top of his own hand. _Her hands are tiny compared to my own hand._ There were small hints of callouses, which hinted of her soldier past but other than that, it was warm and nearly smooth. It was different from his sister, who spent a lot of money on hand creams and other things.

"What was your mother like?"

It must have been the childlike curiosity in her eyes or the sincerity in her voice that compelled him to tell his classmate about his mother. He never really talked about his mother to anyone. Most of his classmates in middle school had been more interested in his father than about his life. His siblings avoided talking about their mother in front of him.

For the first time in a while, he told her about how his mother tried to protect him from his father. He told her about the warmth that his mother gave, about the hugs and smiles she would give him.

He blinked his eyes when his classmate let go of his hand. For a brief moment, he wondered if maybe he did something wrong. _Maybe she didn't want to hear any more stories about my mum? Although why did she ask if she…_ his thoughts were interrupted when he felt a pair of slim arms wrapped against his body.

Warmth soaked his body as Shouto stared up at his classmate. He felt his throat dried up when he realized the tears leaking out of her eyes. _Why was she crying? This didn't affect her so why did she feel emotionally involved?_ The words could not form but he felt his body relaxing at the feel of her hug.

"Why are you crying?"

"Because you have been alone in your suffering," his classmate answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world. _She was crying for me?_ Shouto allowed his arms to wrap around her, letting the girl cry the tears that he never could allow to flow. His heart fluttered at the thought, but Shouto did not understand the reason.

It should not make him happy.

He blinked his eyes as the girl slowly released her hands from his body. Tears still rained down her cheeks but it was now a river, instead of a waterfall. _Tears really didn't suit her._ He stood up from his seat, looked down at his crying friend and placed his finger on her cheeks. He wiped the tears from her eyes, hoping that the girl would get the message.

His classmate blinked and blinked her eyes before flushing a bright red.

He felt his cheeks growing hotter as he realized that they were only a few centimeters apart. From his spot, he could see that the whisker marks on her cheeks were smooth and not rough like he thought that they would be. His classmate's blue eyes were more sapphire than sky like. Her top lip was also slightly smaller than her top lip.

"Naruto…"

"I should see Ero-Sennin and make sure that he isn't discussing things with Mineta!" His classmate twisted her body away but there were still hints of redness in her ears. "I mean I'm not saying this because my face feels like a heater, or because I felt my heart was going to burst. Why the hell did I say that? I really should shut my mouth before you think that I'm a motor mouth. What the hell is happening to me?"

"I don't think that you are a motor mouth."

His classmate froze at his words before swirling her face to look at him. It was funny but Shouto hated the color of red. Red was the color he associated with his father, but the redness in Naruto's cheeks did not bother him.

If anything it made her look cute.

"C-Cute?"

Shouto blinked as he realized that he said his thoughts out loud again. His classmate turned a brighter shade of red and before he could confirm his words, the girl bolted away from him. He rubbed the back of his neck.

 _Did my words scare her?_

* * *

Q&A:

Q: Does Naruto go back to the elementary country to save Gaara?

A: You just have to wait and see

Q: Is Naruto going to mistake Tamaki with Sasuke at first?

A: Yes

Q: Will Sasuke ever find out about Naruto leaving?

A: He is going to find out eventually about what his actions had caused but it would not be in this arc.

A/N: Do you think that Naruto and Shouto's relationship is too fast? Or is the pace of their relationship good?


	20. Chapter 20

A/N: I want to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows as well as everyone that reviewed.

* * *

Naruto rubbed her neck as she stared at the screaming crowds in front of her. All of these people seemed to be excited to see her match against Shouto. Their smiling faces showed it, but there was only one face that did not seem to smile. Endeavour seemed to be staring at her like she was some enigma. Perhaps, it must be because she had been able to capture Iida before he could push her off the stage.

She allowed herself to give a tiny smile to Shouto, who stared back at her with confusion before masking his emotions. He might try to make his face look like a blank piece of paper, but Naruto could see that there was some form of sadness blanketing him.

Then again, could anyone heal from their wounds?

"Todoroki might come from a renowned hero family but Uzumaki is no joke," Present Mic declared. "She might be small but that girl has been winning her matches without having a single scratch on her."

Naruto couldn't help but grin at her teacher's praise. How many times did she use to boast about her strength to her teachers? It was the one thing that the Academy teachers could never sabotage. The old Hokage used to joke that she was just like a mini-Tsunade with her monstrous strength and her bad temper.

She licked her dried lips, flickered her eyes to Midnight and waited with bated breath for the woman to announce that the match had begun. This was her chance to show everyone in the world that the past does not affect her. _Konoha might have tried to break me but I'm going to rise above them. I'm going to show everyone that I'm no longer that broken girl anymore._

"Let the match begin."

As soon as Midnight announced those words, a block of ice was being sent her way. Naruto raised her eyebrow before swinging her leg at the block of ice. The ice immediately shattered from the impact of her kick.

Without a second thought, Naruto sprinted towards her opponent. Shouto must have anticipated her plan since he tried to create a shield of ice to avoid her kick. The blue-eyed girl laughed, jumped over the shield and smashed her fist against her classmate's cheek, smashing him to the ground.

She rubbed the back of her neck and stared at her friend, who seemed to struggle to stand up. _Should I end this? Or should I let the match continue?_ A huge part of her wanted to end this match but there was a part of her that wanted to play. A small part of her, which desired to end this whole match.

A small block of ice was sent her way but the blue eyed girl immediately smashed her fist against the ice.

 _Why the hell does he keep sending ice? Doesn't he know any technique which can make him use his quirk with short distance?_ Naruto tilted her head as she jumped over the next ice attack. There was no way with that amount of training he was forced to endure that his father never thought to teach him how to use his quirk from short distances.

"I just got one question to ask but is that really all you got?" Whispers broke out of the crowd but the blue eyed girl just stared at her friend. She smashed her fist against another barricade of attacks, waiting patiently for him to answer her question. The lack of answer told her everything, which earned a sigh from the girl.

"For someone who has an amazing quirk, you seem to be really uncreative and you have a huge weakness that should not be ignored." Naruto rubbed her shoulders as she made her way towards her classmate. Several eyes looked at her with confusion but in the corner of her eye, she could see Jiraiya smirking at her.

 _He picked it up too._

"You should stop being a long distance fighter and learn to fight short distances." Naruto quirked her lips upwards and untied her hair. Everyone looked at her with confusion but the blonde focused her eyes on her friend. She pulled out a couple of strands of hair from her head and channelled her chakra towards them, just like Jiraiya had taught her.

Everyone stared at her like she was an idiot for doing this to her hair but the girl kept her eyes focused on her friend. He frowned and made another storm of ice attacks against her. Like before, she simply kicked the ice away.

Narrowing her eyes, Naruto threw the strands of hair towards the different parts of his limb, effectively sticking him to the ground.

"Did Uzumaki manage to stick Todoroki with a strand of her hair?" Present Mic questioned. "What the hell is her hair made out of?"

 _You should ask if I did anything to it?_ She felt her lips twitched as the boy struggled to break her hair strand. She took a large bow, earning several laughs from the audience before making her way towards her struggling friend.

"What did you do?"

"Don't you know Todoroki? A magician must never reveal their secrets." He snorted at her response but the blonde kept her eyes fixed on him. "I am not going to knock you out until I tell you that you are an absolute idiot to think that using only ice can defeat me. Actually, you are a bigger idiot for not thinking of improving your taijutsu. Seriously even if you don't use your fire quirk, how the fuck do you think a bunch of ice attacks can stop me?"

He stared at her with so much confusion but the blue-eyed girl just sighed before smashing her fist against his cheeks.

"Uzumaki is the winner."

With those words, Naruto removed the hair strands and picked up the unconscious boy.

 _Hopefully, a good punch will make him have a better understanding that he can't rely on one thing._

* * *

 **(Hokage office)**

Tsunade could only stare blankly at the television screen, which showed a weary Naruto being gentle as she carried the boy away. _How many years had we searched for her only to come up with nothing? The whole time we made the presumption that Naruto was in the Elemental Countries._ She never stopped to think that perhaps the girl would have gone to a whole different part of the world.

"Lady Tsunade…"

Tsunade could only pour herself another glass of sake as Shizune kept looking at her with concern. A huge part of her felt relief to know that the brat was fine. When Naruto came back from the mission, a part of her had been concern that the girl might do something even more reckless. Despite what those councilmembers thought, Naruto cared for her teammate to the point that the mission broke her.

"How did the brat know how to get to Japan?" Shizune blinked her eyes at the question but the middle aged woman swirled her drink around. "It would have taken her months to get there, months where we tried to search for her but everyone kept saying that her scent was gone."

 _Did it even matter? At least we know that the brat was well and where she is._ Tsunade chugged her sake and watched the next match, where a blond-haired boy seemed ready to fight the kid with a raven's head. God, looking at Naruto was like looking at the perfect mix of her parents. As a thirteen-year-old, the girl barely looked like her mother but as a fifteen-year-old, Tsunade could see a lot of Kushina shining through her.

Although it seemed like she was starting to behave like her father.

"Do you think Naruto knew how to hide her scent from everyone?"

"She must have gotten some help since there was no way that she could find out about Japan by herself." Tsunade replied. Naruto could be a really smart girl if she wanted to be, but there was no way that the child could figure out the location of Japan by herself.

"But who would help her?" Shizune frowned. "Not many people believe that Japan is real, so who would tell her?"

Tsunade had a hunch on who it could be, but there was no way that she could ask him. It would mean acknowledging the fact that he had been lying to her for the last two years and she was in no mood to argue with him.

"Who knows," Shizune frowned but Tsunade shook her head. "What I do know is that we have no choice but to bring her back home. The whole world is watching her, which means that all the hidden villages will know that we fucked up."

"Lady Tsunade?"

"I told those civilian councilmembers that exiling Naruto would be a bad idea." Shizune blinked her eyes and the blond haired woman rubbed the sides of her head. "Just because the brat lost control of her emotions, they think it would be a good idea to exile her. They never stopped to think that the brat was only a thirteen-year-old, who couldn't control her emotions. Now the whole world knows that we don't have her."

"Do you really think Naruto run away because of the council?"

 _It might be one of the contributing factors._ Tsunade had a feeling that the girl knew since that Hyuga girl mentioned about the girl talking about it in her sleep. The Uchiha boy was no help either. There had been no denying the fact that those two kids were very close. They must have been closer than Tsunade imagined because the mission broke Naruto.

It was obvious with any emotional intelligence that the girl had been scarred by her battle.

"Do you want me to summon everyone involved with bringing her back?" Shizune finally asked. Tsunade pinched her nose, stared at the television screen and nodded. "Wait till the Sports Festival is over before you call them. I think we are all curious to know who will win the whole thing."

Shizune nodded and stared at the television screen, where they could see that the explosive kid was overpowering his opponent. For someone who looked like a punk, there was no denying that the boy was very intelligent. It almost reminded her of Naruto. The girl might not look like she can be the brightest crayon, but she really did shine in the field.

If it was not for the fact that the council did not think Naruto was ready to be a Chunin then the girl would have been a chunin.

Actually, if it was not for the council and that Uchiha boy, the girl probably would have never left the village.

* * *

"How did you get in here?"

Todoroki could not stop himself from asking this question as he stared at Naruto's godfather. The man was leaning against the chair, an opened notebook in his lap and a pencil in his hand. It was quite strange to know that the man had been here for several hours without anyone knowing.

"I got my ways." The man replied. "Not that it really matters since I came to check up on you. Naruto probably won't check up on you until she finishes her match with that explosive kid. Until then, I'm going to keep an eye on you."

"Keep an eye on me?"

"Well, you are important to my goddaughter, which makes you important to me," Jiraiya explained. He tilted his head, stared at him for a good couple of seconds before shaking his head. "Nope. I still don't like you."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

The white-haired man stared at him for a good couple of minutes before looking at the screen, where they were playing a snapshot of what happened in the last couple of hours. He grimaced as he realized that his attacks were really uncreative like his friend stated. No wonder Naruto had been confident during their match.

"It means that since her father is gone, it is my job to ward off any potential boyfriends." Shoto blinked at those words

"But I'm not a potential boyfriend. Naruto and I are just friends." Jiraiya thinned his lips, stared at him for a good couple of minutes before narrowing his eyes. "What? Did I say something wrong?"

"So, is my godchild not pretty enough for you?"

If Shoto drunk a glass of water then he would have spit the water out at that question. _What did Naruto's appearance have to do with anything?_ He tilted his head at the man, who simply let out a loud laugh.

"So is she not pretty enough for you?"

"Naruto is a very pretty girl." Shouto frowned at the laughing man. "I'm not blind but we are only friends. She has been a better friend to me then I have been to her. She tried to comfort me even though I hurt her with my words."

The white-haired man stared at him for a good couple of seconds. There were many emotions flowing through his eyes but none of them expressed anger. Understanding and sadness radiated through those eyes but not anger. The man should be angry with his admission but he only seemed to stare at him with understanding.

"She has always been the comforting type." Shoto blinked at those words. "Even though a lot of people hurt her, Naruto has this ability to forgive them and try to comfort the people in pain. She certainly didn't get that from her mother, but her father had that ability."

"But you are not really Naruto's godfather…so how can you know her parents?"

He blinked his eyes at the words, which flowed out of his mouth. This was not any of his business. He made it a big deal when Naruto admitted that she heard his conversation. Now he opened his mouth and let out a huge hint that he knew the truth. He stared at the white-haired man, waiting for him to deny his accusation.

"So you were the one that overheard our conversation." Shouto blinked his eye. "I knew one of her classmates was listening in on our conversation but I didn't know which classmate. To answer your question, I do know her parents but I have never told Naruto about them."

"Why not?" Shouto frowned. "Doesn't she have the right to know who her family is? She told everyone that she never knew her parents' names."

Jiraiya rubbed his chin before making his way around the room. Shouto tilted his head as the man drew several strange characters on the ground. _Why was he using so many characters?_ He tilted his head as the man returned to his spot beside him.

"I don't want anyone to overhear our conversation." The man admitted. "It is bad enough that you know some parts of Naruto's issues, I don't want everyone to know. It is the brat's right to tell her classmates and teachers about her past."

"Naruto's parents were very strong shinobi," Jiraiya informed him. "When a person becomes a very strong shinobi then it is only natural that they make a lot of enemies. The Hokage wanted to protect Naruto by keeping her heritage a secret from her. The Naruto you know now might be able to keep her mouth shut about her heritage…but the old Naruto would scream it to the world. We don't want her blood in our hands."

"But she has the right to know about her family."

The white-haired man stared at him for a good couple of seconds, quirking his lips upwards before schooling it to a calm expression. _What was so funny? Did he not realize that the girl had been sad to admit that she didn't know a thing about her parents?_ He chewed the inside of his cheek, not willing to show the man that he was furious.

"She does have the right to know." Jiriya sighed. "And I will probably have to tell her soon because of the Sports Festival. With the thing being televised, Tsunade will have no choice but to bring her back to Konoha since all the villages might start to connect the dots…especially Iwagakure. They might be really happy to try and get rid of Naruto."

Shouto frowned. "Bring her back? But Uzumaki suffered, didn't she? They can't expect her to go back there without putting a fight. They were willing to exile her."

"Tsuande never accepted that idea." The man admitted. "She had been fighting with the council for a good week over their stupid decision. Just because Naruto lost control of herself doesn't mean that she deserved to have that treatment. That Uchiha also tried to kill her but the civilian council is willing to overlook it since he has a very strong quirk and because he is the last person from an influential family."

Shouto felt his lips twist downwards at those words. It always came back to those things: a strong quirk and an influential family. Where was the justice? His friend nearly died to bring her best friend back home and apparently, this was not good enough.

"It is twisted." Jiraiya admitted. "But it is the truth. The civilian council don't have any rights to interfere with the shinobi side but they can try and give pressure. Most of the members of the shinobi council don't blame Naruto since she was doing the mission with their kids. They are angrier with the Uchiha than with Naruto since he is the reason that their kids nearly died."

"But they were thirteen? Why would you make a thirteen-year-old do this?" Shoto could not help but ask. "Shouldn't it be the adults' responsibility to bring him back?"

The white-haired man thinned his lips before looking at his hands. "You heard Naruto mention Gaara? His village tried to attack our village and as a result, we had a lot of injured and dead shinobi. To show the other villages that we were strong, Tsunade had to deploy most of the chunin and jounin to take the other mission. Since most of the adults weren't available, Tsunade decided to send that Nara boy. She told him that he can pick anyone in his team."

"How old is Nara?"

"He is probably only a few months older than Naruto." Shouto blinked his eyes. "The moment Naruto and the others became a genin was the moment that they are declared adults. Like I said, most of the adults were not available. The Nara boy did not have many options but he is a smart boy. His clan is well known for being filled with brilliant tactician. He probably thought that taking Naruto was a good idea since that Uchiha boy loved her."

"I thought Naruto said that they were friends."

Jiraiya sighed. "To be honest, Naruto is very much like her mother. Her mother refused to acknowledge the fact that Naruto's father was in love with her until she fallen in love. When that happened, she was the one that did the pursuing since god knew that Minato was a whimp when it came to telling her about his feelings. What I mean is that Naruto is very oblivious when it comes to boys having feelings for her."

"But everyone else can see?"

"Everyone but Naruto," Jiraiya confirmed. "I think she would never realize until someone screams it at her or made it so obvious that even she can see it. As you know from my conversation with Naruto that she never had much love when she was growing up. So she does not know much about romantic love."

"Do you think she felt the same way for him?" The white-haired blinked his eyes and the bicoloured boy stared at the man. "Just because she doesn't know much about romantic love, doesn't mean that she can express it unconsciously?"

The man stared at him in surprise. _Why was he surprised? It is a good question to ask._ The older male obvious spent time observing her interaction with her friend, so he probably would know the truth. He wanted to see if her feelings had been so strong for her friend that it was the other reason for closing off her emotions.

"I think Naruto always saw Sasuke as her big brother," Jiraiya admitted. "The way she interacts with him is different from the way she interacts with her other male friends."

Shouto felt like squirming in his chair when the man gave him an all-knowing look. _Why do I feel uncomfortable with his look? I kept asking those questions because she is my friend._ He flickered his eyes towards the screen, where Present Mic declared that the next round was going to start soon.

"Are you really sure that you only have feelings of friendship when it comes to Naruto?"

He jerked his head at Naruto godfather's question and nodded his head. "Yes…why?"

The man stared at him for a good couple of seconds before shaking his head. Shouto frowned. _Why did he keep asking that question? Naruto and I are just friends._ He felt like pointing it out but the man just shook his head, muttered some words before going out of the room.

 _That was strange._

* * *

"I hope you have no plans on going easy on me."

Naruto tilted her head as she stared at Bakugou. He still had a scowl plastered on his face but his eyes did not hold any cocky confidence. Instead, her classmate looked at her with respect and excitement. She felt her lips twitched upwards but held herself back. She should not allow him to know that those words brought back some happy memories.

"I will do my best not to go easy on you." Bakugou narrowed his eyes at her words but the blonde did not flinch at his furious eyes. He couldn't really expect her to go full out on him. He might be good but he was nowhere close to her level of skill.

"At last, we have arrived to the finals!" Present Mic declared, effectively stopping their conversation. "In the finals, we will finally know who is the best of the best among U. A's first years. This is a match against Uzumaki versus Bakugou!"

Naruto felt her lips twitched as her classmate swung his fist at her. Tilting her head to the side, the blue-eyed elbowed her classmate on the face. _Crack_. The boy groan in pain but did not allow himself to fall down. Instead, he tried to cause an explosion on her face.

She hastily created a shadow clone and switched it with her. _With Bakugou, I might need to use some tricks since he isn't so predictable._ She flickered her eyes around the stadium, making several plans in her head on how to defeat him.

"Too slow." Bakugou taunted as he tried to grab her shirt.

The blue eyed girl rolled her eyes before kicking him in the stomach. _Making a lot of shadow clones will be pointless against him since he will just cause an explosion._ She unbuttoned her gym shirt. If things get out of hand then she might need to act like Ochako.

 _Should I really use my hair against him?_

" _I think you look prettier with long hair."_

Naruto sighed and undid her hair braid. For so many years, she kept her hair long because Sasuke made her feel confident about herself. In the last ten years, her hair never gotten a proper haircut because of that stupid compliment. If she really was serious about the whole thing, about moving on with her life then it was time for her to let go of her sentiments.

"Is Uzumaki going to do the same trick as before?"

The blue-eyed girl took a deep breath and channelled her chakra into her hair, allowing it to grow longer before swinging it towards him. She could always use the rasengan but Naruto was no longer a kunoichi. There was no need for her to harm her classmate. No need for her to send him to the hospital.

However, there was a need for her to show him that she did respect him.

"Is she using her hair like a chain?" Present Mic declared as the blue-eyed girl held her hair and threw it at her wild classmate. He grinned. She steeled herself for the inevitable explosion that he was going to make.

 _Explode._

The ends of her hair felt like it was on fire but it was fine for her. The explosion from his quirk was going to be a good excuse for her to cut her hair. A good reason for her to finally have the courage to change her appearance.

With the smoke covering the arena, Naruto made several shadow clone of herself. She only ordered one of her clones to go towards Bakugou line of sight before giving them the village hand-signals. Taking a deep breath, she snuck up on her opponent. _The biggest problem when it comes to Bakugou is that he thinks quickly on his feet but I also know how to think on my feet._ With that thought, she grabbed her classmate. He twisted his head, only hesitating a moment before trying to punch her.

She grinned before swinging him out of the arena.

The blond-haired boy smirked and used his hands to try to make an explosion, which would allow him to fly. She grinned, which earned a frown from her classmate. He blinked his eyes as her clones appeared out of their hidings spots, making a ladder of themselves before grabbing hold of the boy and swinging him out of the arena.

 _You can't say that I didn't do my best._ Naruto mused to herself as Midnight declared her as the winner for the Sports Festival. Her heart fluttered as the crowds cheered her name. She chewed on her bottom lip, searched the crowds and smiled brightly at Jiraiya. The man was giving her a huge thumbs up.

 _Would my parents have been as proud of me as Ero-Sennin?_

She shook her head and stared at her hair. The ends of her hair were burnt from Bakugou's match but Naruto could not bring herself to regret her move. For some strange reason, it eased the weight in her shoulders.

 _Starting today, I won't allow my past to dictate me._

* * *

 **A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter.**


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N: I want to thank everyone that reviewed the last chapter and added this story to their favourite s and follows.**

* * *

Naruto always hated the rain.

As a little girl, the rain reminded her of the fact that she was alone. The rain and the thunder storms always reminded her that there was no one, who she could go to comfort. When the other kids could claim that their parents gave them comfort, Naruto could only claim that she comforts herself. Jiraiya might try to comfort her but the man was just too late.

Letting out a sigh, Naruto pulled out her bright orange umbrella from her bag. _I might have only Hinata when I was in Konoha but I have my classmates…and maybe Jiraiya._ Her life was no longer sad or miserable. She had loving classmates, friends that seemed to give a shit about her.

"You're Uzumaki Naruto, aren't you? You look so different from the television screen! I swear that your hair was longer."

The blonde stopped walking and twisted her head to look at the person, who called out her name. She blinked her eyes when she realized that it was a redhead girl. She was a pretty girl with hazel eyes, which twinkled with so much joy, innocence and mischief that Naruto couldn't help but remember her past self. In fact, it felt like that she was looking at a mirror.

If it weren't for the hazel eyes and red hair, Naruto swore that they could be related.

"Yes, I'm Uzumaki Naruto."

The girl grinned before grabbing her hands. Her eyes glittered with so much hero worship that Naruto recalled Konohamaru. Her surrogate brother used to look at her with such bright eyes. He used to annoy her, begging her to play with him. Her throat dried up as memories of her past flooded into her mind. _I hope he understand why I left…I hope he can forgive me for leaving him alone._

"You were so cool in the Sports Festival!" The girl gushed. "My friends didn't think you were anything special since you lost in the Cavalry Battle but I thought you were so badass with your clones. You know I think I want to join U.A High instead of going to my brother's high school especially if it means that they give me a chance to get close to you."

Naruto could only blink her eyes, trying to process what the girl confessed to her. Her heart soared at the compliment and for a moment, she felt tempted to give the girl a huge smile.

"Thank you."

"I should be thanking you since you are taking your time to talk to me, instead of going to class." The girl glanced at her watch and sighed. "I should get to class before my teacher threaten to call my parents in, again. "

The blonde nodded her head and watched as the girl run the other direction. The strands of red hair flying in the wind brought a pang in her heart. Just for a brief moment, a red head woman flashed through her mind. Naruto felt bile rising up in her throat as the picture in her head become clearer. The red-head woman was smiling at her despite the fact that there was blood coming out of her mouth.

 _Why is my mind conjuring such an image?_

" _Naru-chan, I want you to know that Mummy and Daddy love you."_

Naruto felt tears building up behind her eyes. She bit her lips, praying and hoping that the pain would be enough to stop her tears. She was fifteen years old. There was no reason for her to cry her heart out. There was no point for her to wonder if her parents loved her, to wonder if they actually hated her like the other adults claimed. She was living the good life now. She had friends that adored her.

She was going to live her life in the way that she wanted.

"Naru-chan…are you okay?"

Naruto's head swung around, blond hair slapping her cheeks loudly across the face. Tsuyu stared at her with concern. Her classmate only stood a couple of meters away from her eyes. Her usual blank eyes shone with concern as she took in the sight of her. The blonde sniffed, rubbed her face and silently cursed when she realized that tears were already pouring down her face.

Just those twelve words could reduce her to a sobbing mess.

"I'm fine, Tsuyu-chan."

Tsuyu frowned but made no attempts to ask her about what was wrong. Instead, the girl closed the difference between them, linking their arms together and offered a small smile. "The rain can make anyone sad, can't it?"

"Y-Yeah, I fucking hate the rain." Naruto stared blankly at the rain, which seemed to be hitting the ground even harder than before. She felt her heart winced as the memories of the hospital flooded into her mind. _The demon brat failed in her mission to bring the young Uchiha back._ Those had been the words that she first heard when she woke up from the hospital bed. "I really hate the fucking rain."

"You cut your hair." Tsuyu's eyes lingered on the blond hair, which barely touched her shoulder. "I didn't think Bakugou's attack would be enough for you to cut your hair so much."

"I wanted to experience a change." The blond girl smiled softly. "It feels weird to have my hair this short but I like it more, than my long hair. It makes fighting easier if you ask me."

Her classmate fixed her eyes on her, those blank eyes searching as if they doubted her words. It unnerved her that Tsuyu could make her feel so uncomfortable. _How can I tell her that I wanted to show everyone that Sasuke, no longer had any hold on me?_ She shook her head. For her to admit this would be telling everyone about her past.

She was not ready to tell her classmates and friends about her past.

* * *

"Naruto!"

"Naru-chan, you cut your hair!"

"Don't tell us that you were bothered about the attention that you decided to cut your hair!"

Naruto felt her head throbbing as the questions kept pouring in from every direction. She rubbed the sides of her head, trying to squish her displeasure from the collisions of voices.

Mina was hovering about her, hands playing with the blond hair that barely touched her shoulder. Ochako just stood there with concern eyes while Hagakure made comments about how cute she looked with short hair. Bakugou sat in his seat, an ugly scowl on his face as he yelled to everyone that his explosions did not cause her to cut her hair. Shouto stood in the corner, eyes showing no emotions and a careful blank expression in his face.

She felt her lips twitched upwards.

 _Some things would never change._

"I just wanted to see what it would be like to have short hair," Naruto combed her hair with her hands. "I have never done anything drastic with my hair before."

Everyone stared at her in shock and a sense of dread washed over her when she saw the scheming looks in Mina's face. Shaking her head, Naruto took her seat beside Shouto. _Was it strange that I cut my hair? Maybe, they couldn't picture me with short hair._ She stared out at the window, where she could see that the rain continued to pour like there was no tomorrow.

She blinked her eyes when she saw that Shouto was still staring at her. His bicoloured eyes seemed to linger on her hair, which barely tickled her shoulder. He twisted his head away from her before looking back at her.

"It suits you." Naruto blinked at those words. "You look pretty with your short hair, but you are always pretty."

 _Pretty?_

Naruto felt her heart swell at those words as her friend stared at her with honest eyes. She toyed with her hair as memories of her childhood flooded into her mind. Sasuke used to tell her that she looked prettier with long hair, which was why she kept her hair long. She had never felt like she would be pretty with long hair. She stared at her friend for a good couple of minutes before giving him a large smile.

"Thank you."

Shouto's eyes lingered on her hair before focusing on her eyes. "I am only telling the truth."

The sincerity in his eyes and his voice was enough to make Naruto turn her head away from him. _The truth?_ She placed her hand on her chest, feeling her racing heart. Maybe in his eyes that she looked pretty, but she could count the number of people that was prettier than her. Sakura, Ino, Hinata, Momo, Mina and so many other girls were prettier than her. Compared to them, she was just ordinary.

Yet when Shouto looked at her, she could think that maybe he was right.

The door to their classroom slid open and Aizawa stepped through, no longer sporting bandages of any kind. "Morning."

Their teacher scanned the room, eyes lingering on each of his students. Aizawa's eyes lingered the most on her. His eyes widened slightly at the sight of her hair. _Why did everyone keep looking at me like that?_ Her teacher nodded his head before continuing with his scan of the classroom.

"It is nice to see that your bandages are off, Aizawa-sensei." Tsuyu commented.

"The old lady's treatment was excessive," Aizawa explained. "But that isn't important. Today, we've got _Hero Informatics_ class and a special one at that."

The atmosphere around her quickly began to change, her classmates leaning forward warily as they waited for the news to finally drop. Naruto scratched the back of her neck, wishing for the first time in two days that her hair was long enough for her to make a braid out of it. She never liked tension.

Shouto leaned towards her, flashing her a side glance. "You don't seem to be nervous."

Naruto turned to him, blue eyes glinting with amusement. "I just won the Sports Festival so I am so happy that he could ask me to go to the principal's office and I won't throw a fuss."

Aizawa swept his eyes over them once and blinked. "Code names. You will be coming up with your hero names."

"How awesome! It is our time to shine!" Chairs clattered as most of her classmates erupted into cheers of joy. Naruto chewed the inner corner of her cheeks.

Aizawa silenced her classmates with a sharp glare. "But before we talk about code names, we need to discuss the pro draft picks I mentioned the other day. This is based on who the pros think will be ready to join the hero workforce after another two or three years of experience. So you could say that it is a way for them to show interest in your futures.:

Naruto never really thought about what the professionals would think about her during their two days off. For the last two days, Jiriaya had been training her like a madman. It also didn't help that she had been focusing on how to move on with her life. She had been thinking about how to be a better hero, about being a better friend to her classmates but not once did it cross her mind about the internship.

She grimaced when she felt a sharp pain in her cheek.

"There is ample time for their interest to die down before you graduate," Aizawa added. "And any or all offers can be arbitrarily revoked. It happens quite often so don't panic if it happens to you."

Naruto chewed her bottom lip as her classmates began to whisper about the pressure that they were facing. _Did I impress these people? I hope so because it will be a pain in the neck to win the whole thing and not have anyone interested._ She glanced at Shouto, who had a thoughtful look on his face as Momo made several comments about the pressure.

"Here are the totals for those with offers." Aizawa took out a remote from his pocket and clicked on it. The board came to life as graphs began to shoot across the board, numbers spinning before they settled below the names. "Usually, the numbers are more spread out, however, our top three stole most of the spotlight."

 _4,500_

Naruto rubbed her eyes, wondering and hoping that the number on her name was not a joke. She pinched herself and smiled when she saw that the numbers had not changed. There were so many people, who wanted her to do their internship with them. _I wasn't unwanted._ If she had been in Konoha then no one would have given her this many offers. In fact, she would have been lucky to get an offer.

"Well I can understand why Naru-chan got most of the offers but it is weird that Todoroki is second and Bakugou is third," Jirou commented.

Naruto frowned and glanced at Shouto, who had his eyebrows scrunched together and a blank expression on his face. She felt her heart grow heavy at the sight of his uncomfortable expression. _He probably thinks that it is because of his name._ No one was looking at them, instead, everyone seemed to be focusing on the fact that there was a huge difference between the offers.

"You know you deserved those offers." She whispered.

Shouto grimaced. "Most of the offers must have come because of my father's influence and not just because of my performance."

Aizawa swept on, explaining that regardless of getting an offer or not, they would be interning with a pro hero within the area to receive the necessary experience. Naruto frowned to herself, twirling her fingers around her hair strand. _If I have to do an internship then it means I will have to cut down my training with Ero-Sennin. It isn't fair, he is going to teach me to find my elemental jutsu._

Her eyes drifted to the person sitting beside her, Shouto had his eyes fixed on their teacher but every few seconds, he would flicker his eyes at her. If she didn't know any better, she would think that he was concerned for her.

"They are only temporary, but you still want to pick something appropriate," Aizawa said meaningfully. "But if you're not serious about it—"

"You'll know true hell later."

The door to their room slip open with a clatter and Naruto twisted her head to look at the side. Midnight strutted proudly into the classroom with a wink, hands placed behind her head as she made her way to the front of the class. "The name you pick now may be what the world will end up calling you."

"Yes, that is very true," Aizawa said flatly. "Midnight here will be assessing the sensibility of the names that you pick since I'm no good at that."

 _Yeah, I already had an idea from your name._ Naruto glanced out at the window, where she could see that the rain had stopped. Her lips curled into a tiny smile at the sight of the birds on the ground as well as the sounds of their chirping, indicating that the storm had passed.

Aizawa tugged out his sleeping bag, pausing briefly to fix them with a quiet look. "What future do you see for yourself? The name you choose will bring you closer to cementing a certain image because names are capable of reflecting one's true character."

Naruto soaked in Aizawa's words, Koji handing her back a board and marker with a nervous smile, and she numbly handed one back to Satou behind her. _A name._ It made sense to make a name. If she was here to learn how to properly be a hero like her class—if she wanted to be a hero, wanted to move on with her life then she needed a name. She was here today because Jiraiya gave her the chance to be free because her teachers believed in her. She was here because Midoriya made her realize that she couldn't live like before.

Naruto tightened her grip on the marker and stared blankly at the whiteboard in front of her.

She had never _thought_ about being a hero until she passed the entrance exam. She had been living life like a ghost, never really being a part of anything. Everything had been like a haze because she couldn't let go of her past. She had been the girl that couldn't really live her life.

"We can start when the first person is ready."

Naruto felt sweat building up on her eyebrow. _What the hell do I write? My whole life, I wanted to become Hokage but I don't want to be associated with the position that hurt me._ She chewed the inner corner of her cheek as her classmates declared his hero name. Her eyes widened when she saw that Aoyama wrote a whole sentence.

"You got to be fucking kidding me! I need to write a whole sentence!" Naruto complained, letting go of her marker.

"I think it is just him," Shouto reassured her.

Naruto let out a sigh of relief before flickering her eyes at Shouto's board, which was still blank. _Maybe I should do something flashy?_ She shook her head. Wrapping her hands around the marker, the blonde tapped her marker against her face., waiting for some inspiration to come.

What kind of hero did she want to represent?

" _I promise that I'm always going to be there for you."_

She felt her throat dried up as the memory of Kakashi's words flooded into her mind. He promised her that he would protect her from the people, who kept chasing after her. She tightened her grip on her marker. He broke that promise to her, making her believe that adults actually did give a shit about her.

If he actually gave a shit about her then why didn't he focus on her when it came to her training.

If Naruto was going to become a hero then she was going to strive to be a hero that kept their promise. She would be a hero that would protect everyone because it was her job.

"Having trouble?" Ochako asked, glancing at her empty whiteboard.

"I'm not feeling very creative," Naruto admitted.

Her classmate tilted her head and snapped her fingers. "How about Vixen? Your whisker marks make you look like a female fox."

 _Vixen?_ Naruto tilted her head and stared out at the window. Vixen reminded her of the fox that was sealed inside of her. It reminded her about the days when no one could look past the marks which decorated her cheeks. Could she actually write it down? She shook her head. If she wanted to move on with her life then anything to do with the Kyuubi must be erased from her mind.

She was going to live her life to the fullest.

" _You know Naru-chan, I think you are my guardian angel with how you always protect me from the bullies."_

Hinata's words rung through her head and the blonde felt her eyes widened as she found a code name to use. Even though they had been separated for the last three years, her friend could still give her a good idea. She might not be an angel but she could be the protector that the people deserved. She was going to be the hero, who protected the people that had no one to protect.

" _You need to learn how to use the power inside of you."_

"Let's see, we still have Iida and Bakugou, who needs to change his. Midoriya and—ah, Uzumaki, would you like to go next?"

Naruto nodded, quietly rising to her feet before making her way to the podium. She could feel the eyes of her classmates on her and surprisingly enough, she found herself drawing strength from the way Todoroki's mismatched eyes watched her, as though having expected her to have known a name before any of them. _I hope that she won't reject that name._

" _You're not the monster, Naruto. You're its jailor."_

Her classmates waited and Naruto shifted most of her weight onto her right leg, forcing them to steady despite the nerves that she felt. She took a deep breath, staring at her classmates as the memories of the past flooded her.

 _I'm Naruto Uzumaki and I'm not the Kyuubi._

 _I'm not the jailor for the Kyuubi._

" _ **Oh, what are you then?"**_

She ignored the Kyuubi, who seemed to have decided to make itself known just because of her thoughts. Jiraiya told her that the Akatsuki were going to be after people like her. They were going to try and capture her because of the demon inside of her. She might hate the Kyuubi, might hate him because of what he represented but she was going to be the better person.

"When I was a little girl, I didn't have a lot of people protecting me." Everyone blinked their eyes at her words and Naruto took a deep breath. "I want to be a hero that protects the people. I want to be a hero that when people look at me, they know that they are safe and protected. I wanted to be a hero that the orphan in me, never had. I would like to think with my quirk that I can do it."

' _The Hokage protects everyone in the village.'_

Naruto gripped her board tight and flipped it up for the people to see.

 _The Hero of Protection: Guardian._

She smiled widely at everyone. "I would like to be the kind of hero that protects the people."

" _I'm your guardian, Kyuubi…that is what I am."_

* * *

(in Konoha)

Kakashi scratched his head as he looked at the previous tests that his student had done. Sitting across him was Iruka, who also had his eyebrows knitted together as they stared at the first year tests that Naruto did as well as the other students of the same year group. Several stacks of papers were scattered across the table, along with several notes.

"Her papers were different from everyone else," Kakashi said finally, putting down the math paper that his student did in her first year. He picked up the test paper that Sasuke did and put it besides Naruto's paper. Iruka grimaced. "The papers that they were giving her wasn't some paper that any kid could do in their first year of schooling. It was a paper that she should have known in her third year of schooling."

"I knew that her former teacher didn't like her," Iruka rubbed the back of his neck. "And I wasn't the friendliest teacher in her second year of school, but I had never given her any hard papers to do. It is actually a miracle that she did as well as she did when you know this."

The silver-haired man grimaced at the reminder and picked up the strategy paper that Naruto did in her first year. _Naruto was not joking when she said that the teachers were against her._ He knew as a little girl that his student worked very hard, but the fact that these papers were the reason that she stopped studying was enough to throttle anyone. If the girl had been given normal papers then she probably would have been the top kunoichi.

"She is very smart if you consider the fact that she was the year representative for the Sports Festival." Kakashi drawled, putting down the paper. He picked up the second year math paper that Naruto did. _Most of it is correct._ He frowned when he noticed that there were some slight errors. The science paper was nearly perfect too. How did she go from being a bright student to being the worse one? He rubbed his chin. "In fact, her grades in your subject are amazing."

"They were amazing until the last semester of her second year." Iruka sighed. "I remembered that she went from being an amazing student to being the student, that played too many pranks and skipped classes."

"Do you know why?"

"I had a theory but I never had it confirmed." Kakashi raised his eyebrow and Iruka took a deep breath. "Naruto will never tell anyone that she was being bullied, but I heard one of the girls telling Naruto that it was pointless for her to study so hard. They told her that she was never going to become a ninja and that Sasuke was meant to get the highest grades. I think she might have faced more problems, but I could never get confirmed since their families funded the school."

"Did you try to confirm it?"

"Even if I confirm it, there is nothing that I can do." Iruka grimaced. "The principal would have taken those girl's sides over Naruto since their family did the funding. The Hokage would have helped but only if Naruto admitted that she was being bullied. Naruto has too much pride to admit that she was being bullied or that she is hurt."

 _If Naruto had been bullied before then it would make sense on the speed that she broke down._ Kakashi tapped his chin and stared at the test papers scattered on the table. His student had been bullied before, which meant that she must have depressive episodes before this. It must mean that her match with Sasuke brought out the depressive episode, but the question was what was her trigger? What triggered her to leave? Sasuke was not enough to do this to her.

"Iruka, can you name me all the girls that bullied Naruto?"

Kakashi noted down the names as Iruka recalled the girls, who seemed to be aggressive to his student. His lips turned downwards as he realized that most of the girls had been girls, who had been apart of Sasuke's fan club. He thinned his lips when Iruka called out Sakura and Ino's names.

Maybe, it was time to talk to them about their behaviour with Naruto.

* * *

A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter, especially about Naruto's hero name. I thought about going for Maelstorm or Vixen but I felt like they weren't original enough.


	22. Chapter 22

A/N: I want to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows as well as everyone that reviewed.

* * *

Naruto chewed on her bottom lip as Aizawa handed her the list of people, who scouted her. There must be around forty pages filled with the names of heroes that wanted her. How the hell was she going to choose? Tilting her head, the blonde glanced at Izuku. Her classmate was an encyclopaedia when it came to heroes, so he might be the best person to go to.

"Do you have any idea which hero you want to do an internship?" Shouto flipped through his list, eyebrows knitting together as he read through the list. "There is a hero that interests you, isn't there?"

 _A hero that interests me?_ The blonde tilted her head before shaking her head at him. He thinned his lips, glanced at her list and without a second thought, she handed him the list. Her friend flipped through the list, scanning through the list like there was no tomorrow. For a brief moment, she could imagine her friend being in the office and acting like some big shot CEO with his behaviour.

"Uzushiokage is a hero that has a quirk, which is similar to yours," Shouto pointed to the name, which was on top of the third page. "If you want to find new ideas on how to use your quirk then you can go to him."

Naruto stared at the page, fingers tracing the hero name that seemed so similar to the Kages of the hidden village. If he had a quirk similar to her then it mean he came from the Elemental Countries. Did she really want to do her internship under some guy that came from the same world as her? So many things to consider and there wasn't mch time for her to think.

"What is the person like as a hero?"

Shouto stared straight at the board. "You don't really watch television, do you? Or follow those magazines?"

The blonde quirked her lips upwards at those words, earning a sigh from her friend. Shouto shook his head, but Naruto could see the small glimpse of amusement in his eyes. They both knew that she had no time to watch those things, not when she had a part time job to worry about and training to do.

"I have no time to watch television," she twirled her finger around her hair. "If I'm not training then I'm doing homework, and if I'm not doing that then I'm working part-time to pay the bills."

Her friend curled his lips into a frown. "Why don't you ask your godfather for help? He is willing to help you, isn't he?"

The blue-eyed girl took a deep breath, curled her hands together and stared at Shouto's mismatched eyes. "I know Ero-Sennin will be willing to give me money if I ask him, but I don't want to rely on him when it comes to money."

It wasn't only that but Naruto felt uncomfortable with the idea of asking Jiriaya for some money. The man protected her, helped her find a better life and was even training her, so how could she ask him for money? Their relationship wasn't like that. She didn't want to make their relationship like that. She had too much respect for the man to do this to him.

"Godfather? I thought you lived by yourself, Whiskers." Bakugou called out, drawing everyone's attention to her. Naruto rubbed the back of her neck as everyone turned their eyes on her. Most of her classmates looked at her in confusion with only Mineta and Shouto looking unsurprised at her words. She scowled and mentally swore at her classmate for drawing attention to herself.

"I do live by myself, Explosive Head," Naruto rubbed the back of her neck as everyone stared at her for explanation. "Ero-Sennin doesn't have the time to live with me, since he spends most of his time travelling the world for his work."

"Ero-Sennin?" Kaminari knitted his eyebrow. "Why do you call your godfather, Ero-Sennin?"

"Because he is the great Jiraiya." Mineta called out.

Most of the boys stared at her and then to Mineta, before looking at her to confirm his words. Shouto tilted his head at her, knitting his eyebrow at their male classmates' strange reaction. _That answers whether he read Ero-Sennin's books._ The blonde rubbed the sides of her forehead, already feeling the incoming questions that was going to come sooner or later.

She nodded her head.

"You mean to tell us that your Godfather is the creator of the Icha-Icha series?" Naruto nodded, which earned gawking expressions from her classmates.

Shouto frowned. "What is the Icha-Icha series?"

"It is a series that needs to be burned," Mineta and Kaminari made a wave of protest at her words but the blonde raised her eyebrows. "It is a perverted book that portrays females as being less than realistic. Honestly, I don't know how he thinks that women look like that!"

"How can a loving goddaughter insult her godfather's greatest work!" Mineta yelled. "The great Jiraiya-sama was right when he said that you don't appreciate his art."

 _Appreciate his art?_ Naruto curled her lips into a scowl. How the hell could she appreciate his art? It was his art that allowed Itachi to fool him. Honestly, how the man could claim to be one of the strongest shinobi in the world, she did not know. He fell for a simple genjutsu because of his stupid love for women. Not only that but he dared gave her a lecture about the three sins of a shinobi, and not follow them.

"Did the great Jiraiya-sama informed you that he nearly died because people did not appreciate his art?" Naruto narrowed her eyes at her classmate. "If you even think of following in Ero-Sennin's footsteps, you can bet your ass that I will make you think all women are evil."

Mineta and Kaminari paled at her warning, which earned a tiny smile from Naruto. She laughed, picked up her paper and resumed back to reading her list of offers. Beside the Uzushiokage Agency, there was also Endeavour Agency but Naruto could not see herself interning for the man. How could she? He hurt her friend, and there was no way that she could her tongue back.

She tilted her head when she saw that there was an agency called Nighteye. So many choices for her to pick, but there was not much time for her to pick her internship. Aizawa-sensei wanted the forms back by tomorrow morning, which meant that she only had a night to conduct her research.

 _Why couldn't I have fewer choices?_

* * *

"What are you reading, kiddo?"

Jiraiya took a seat on the couch and stared at his goddaughter, who had her eyebrows knitted together as she flipped through the pages. For a moment, he recalled her father and how he would make the same expression whenever he had an important decision to make. It was starting to become more and more clear that the girl did inherit some of her father's habits.

"The list of people, who are offering me the chance to do an internship with them." Naruto handed him a list. "I have got a lot of offers since I won the whole thing."

 _A lot is an understatement._ Jiraiya eyed the list and then to the computer screen, which had the address of her internship. Was the girl actually going to do research for all the people, who offered her a chance? He flickered his eyes at the blond-haired girl, who kept shaking her head in frustration.

"Why don't you pick the best? Didn't you come to me because I was stronger than the guy, who Kakashi found for you?" Jiraiya handed the girl back her list. It would have been something that the old Naruto would do since she always wanted to be the best.

His student sighed. "If I were to pick the best from the list, then I would be doing my internship under Shouto's father and I don't want to be anywhere near that bastard. There is Hawks but I don't think our styles fit, or rather I don't know if I can picture myself interning under him."

"Who else do you have?"

"There is also Blue Jeanist Agency but the guy also does some model work." Jiraiya blinked his eyes while the blond haired girl rubbed her neck. "I don't have the fashion sense nor the temperament to deal with him. There is Sir Nighteye but I don't know much about his agency. I thought of asking Izuku but I don't want to remind him that he didn't have many offers."

"Is there anyone that interest you?"

Naruto chewed on her bottom lip. "Uzushiokage interests me, but only because his hero name sounds like a shinobi name. It also doesn't help that Shouto told me that his quirk is similar to mine, which means that maybe he has chakra. I don't know whether I am insane to consider him or not."

Jiraiya kept his face blank as his goddaughter went on a rant about the many heroes, who offered her a chance to the internship. Uzushiokage meant that the hero had a relationship with the Uzumaki Clan. It meant that there might be some relatives of Kushina, who noticed that his goddaughter was related to their clanmember. Afterall Kushina had been famous. The woman was related to the head of the clan, which was one of the reasons for her being chosen to become the jinchuuriki.

Should he encourage Naruto to intern with the man?

If he did then it was time for him to tell Naruto about her mother, because there was only so much that he could teach her. If Kushina was alive then she would be telling the girl to go do the internship with him. The woman had always wanted to teach her offspring about the ways of her clan.

It would be wrong to deny Naruto this chance.

"You should go do the internship with Uzushiokage." His goddaughter raised her eyebrow at him, earning a sigh from the white haired man. He could feel himself becoming nervous as he realized that his godchild might never look at him in the same way. Naruto was going to be angry with him when she realized that the Hokage and him have been keeping secrets from her. "He might be a member of your mother's clan."

"My mother?" Naruto chewed on her bottom lip, stared at the paper before staring at him. There were many emotions flowing through his godchild's eyes. Disappointment, wonder, sadness but the real emotion, which stood out to Jiraiya was the anger in them. Those usual sad eyes were now flowing with so much anger that he thought the girl might kill him. "How the hell do you know anything about my mother? Jiraiya, is there anything that you didn't tell me? I thought that only the Hokage knew who my parents were."

Jiraiya took a deep breath. "Naruto, I have known your parents since they were ten years old and I had the pleasure of training your father…"

"If you knew who my parents were then why didn't you tell me?" Naruto clenched her hands into a fist. "You have been living me for the last three weeks and you haven't thought about telling me about them? Fuck, you have known me since I was twelve! Why haven't you told me anything?"

"It was for…"

"For my own good? Do you know how many years I cried myself to sleep because I didn't know who my parents were?" She closed her eyes. "From the moment I entered the Academy, the kids would remind me that I was a no-name orphan. They kept telling me that my parents must have abandoned me because I wasn't the child that they wanted."

"I can swear to you that your parents loved you and they would have been there for you if they…"

"How the fuck would I know that?" Naruto took a shaky breath. "Do you think a little kid would know if their parents loved them? News flash, they wouldn't know. Do you know how many years I kept begging the gods to give me a sign that my parents loved me? Of course you wouldn't know since you were never hated by the villagers."

"Naruto…"

"Did you know that I spent years trying to imagine what my parents looked like? I always wonder if I looked like my mother or my father." Jiraiya felt his chest grow heavy when he saw the tears leaking out of her eyes. "Now you are telling me that you knew who my parents were this whole time, and you didn't think this was the right time to tell me. What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Your father made a lot of enemies, the Hokage thought for your own safety that it would be safer for you not to know."

"Yes, the Hokage but what about you?" Jiraiya blinked his eyes. "When you sent me here, I would have been far away from his enemies…so why didn't you tell me then? I would have been safe."

He felt his whole body become numb as the girl stared at him with accusing eyes. Why didn't he tell her? He run his hand through his hair. Naruto was right in a sense. By sending her here, she would have been safe. He could have told her the truth, but looking at her was difficult. Every time he saw her, he saw her parents and recalled the days, when Minato had been daydreaming about his daughter.

Remembering his student had been so difficult.

"Because it was painful." Naruto blinked her eyes. "I avoided coming to the village, not just because of my spy network but because you looked like your parents."

The blond-haired girl stood up from her spot in the couch.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going out for a walk because frankly if I stay any longer, I'm going to punch you in the face."

* * *

 _Because it was painful._ Those four words haunted Naruto as she took a walk through the forest. So, what if it was painful? She spent so many years wondering about her parents. A part of her felt like it had been missing because she didn't know a damn thing about her parents. For goodness sake, she spent most of her childhood, imagining what her parents looked like.

She clenched her hands into a fist.

"So we meet again, young Uzumaki."

Naruto stopped walking and twisted her head to look at the person, who was calling her. She thinned her lips into a tiny smile when she realized that it was the man, who told her about what it meant to be a real hero. A part of her felt tempted to thank him for clearing her mind while another part of her was in no mood to deal with him.

"I'm not in the mood to talk."

The redhead man nodded. "Yeah, I can tell that you are very tempted to kill someone. Did anyone tell you that a girl should never scowl? You are going to have so many wrinkles if you keep scowling like that."

"Like I give a shit about wrinkles." Naruto folded her arms against her chest and stared at the couple walking with a stroller. They were a smiling, looking so happy and in love that she wondered if her parents had been like that. She clenched her hands into a fist. "Really, why should I give a shit about my wrinkles?"

"Because most girls give a shit about their appearance," the man replied. He ruffled her hair, touched her forehead and tried to smooth it. She swatted his hand away and scowled at him. "I'm just telling you as a man, who have two baby sisters."

"I'm different." She muttered.

"Yeah, you are older." The man grinned and stared out at the lake. "Thanks to you, my baby sister wants to go to your high school instead of mine."

"It shows that she has good taste."

The green-eyed man just laughed good naturally at her jab. He tilted his head, stared at her for a good couple of minutes before looking at the smiling couples, which surrounded them. "So why are you so angry? I thought you would be screaming with joy since you won the Sports Festival."

"Why do you give a shit?" She stared at him with confusion. "You have only met me once, so why do you want to know what makes me angry?"

The man curled his lips into a tiny bitter smile. "Do you remember what I told you in the Sports Festival?"

"When you see someone is in trouble then it is only right to give a shit about them." Naruto recited, earning a larger smile from the man. She blinked her eyes and made an 'oh' sound as she realized why he asked her that question. Should she tell him about her problems? He was basically telling her that he wasn't going to ignore her when he knew she was in pain.

"You are making it obvious to the world that you are in pain."

She chewed on her bottom lip. "I just learned that my teacher knew about my parents this whole time, but never told me because he found it too painful to talk about them. He only told me about my mother's family because I got an offer someone that might be related to them."

There was a glint of understanding in the man's eyes as well as another emotion. Was it sympathy? Why should he feel sorry for her? She was fine. Yes, she might want to punch Jiraiya but it was not like her whole life was affected by this. The red-head man placed his large hands on her shoulder, forcing her to look at him and there was no judgement in his eyes.

"I can understand why you are very angry, if anything you have the right to be furious with your teacher," The man touched her cheeks and forced them upwards. "But you have to understand his point of view. Your parents must have been dear to him, and seeing you meant that it was a constant reminder that they were gone."

"B-But I deserved the right to know the truth. I want to know their names and everything! I want to know what they were like as people."

"I can't understand your pain," the man wrapped his arms around her and Naruto felt tempted to push him away. Yet, it felt nice to be hugged. It felt nice that someone was trying to comfort her. "I grew up very lucky. I have a mother and father that adored my sisters and me. They supported my dreams even though my mother wished that I took a safer job, so I can't understand your pain."

"At least you are not going to say you can understand it."

The man chuckled. "I will be a terrible person to admit that I can understand your pain. My father always tells me that I can't understand his pain since my life is different from his. He will always tell me that I must never use those words if I had never experienced it."

"How is your life different from your father?"

"My father came to this country when his home got destroyed," the man explained. "He had seen his parents murdered, his siblings lost from him and never got the chance to say goodbye to his favourite cousin. I used to tell him that I understand his pain because of the stories he told me and my baby sisters, but the old man will just shake his head. He said that I will never understand his pain until I go through it."

"Oh…"

"Are you going to do the internship with your relative?"

Naruto blinked her eyes at the sudden question and nodded. "Yeah, I think I can learn a lot from him."

"I think your relative will be happy to show you the ropes," the man curled his lips into a smile. "I can't wait till we meet again, Uzumaki Naruto."

"Why the hell are you so certain?"

The man simply grinned before walking out on her. In the distance, she could see a pretty woman making her way to the man, holding out what must be an autograph book. Was that guy famous? The man grinned, gave the woman a wink and signed the book, before disappearing into the darkness.

 _What the hell just happened?_

* * *

A/N: I was going to have Naruto interact with Bakugou but I found that the interactions was just too out of character for them, instead I had her interact with the Uzushiokage. What do you think of the Uzushiokage so far? And the little glimpse of his background? Also what do you think about the fight between Naruto and Jiraiya?


	23. Chapter 23

A/N: I want to thank everyone that reviewed the last chapter and added this story to their favourites and follows.

* * *

Uzumaki Eisuke knew from a very young age that he wanted to be a hero. It had been All Might who inspired him to become the type of hero that he was, but the old hero was not the reason he chose to be a hero. With so many heroes running loose, it would have been easier for him to become a doctor like his mother always hoped. Being a superhero was a dangerous job in the eyes of his mother, who was probably one of the few people that did not encourage the occupation.

It was his father that inspired him to become a hero. The stories that his father told him about his home, the love that he had for his lost home and the anger that he felt for the betrayal of his allies was enough to make him decide to be a hero. His people never got a hero to save them, they got backstabbers that wanted to destroy their village and weaken them. People were scared of his father's clan and for that Eisuke hated what the Elemental Countries stand for.

So he entered the second-best hero school in the country and worked his ass off to graduate. He lost a couple of friends along the way, some of them because of his studies while others just went missing. He tried his hardest to help the people even if some of his classmates thought he was stupid to try and help everyone he can. Why waste your time? You can't save everyone. Those were his classmate's words.

He probably could not save everyone but he would try his best to save the people that are screaming for help. He was going to become the hero his father's people never got. A hero that was worthy of being a hero, not some asshole that decided to become a hero because of the fame. If he wanted to become famous then he would have become an actor or a singer like his cousin.

It was because he wanted to be the best hero that he could be that he took notice of Naruto. It did not really hit him immediately the girl was a relative, not with her lack of red hair. It probably did not help that her use of shadow clones was amazing—she made more clones than he can ever hope to make. Yet what stood out to him was the overwhelming sadness and hurt in her blue eyes. Fifteen years old and her eyes looked like they saw things he could never understand. She might try to act like she was fine but it was clear to him that she was not feeling all that good.

It was perhaps one of the reasons he chose to intern her. It was not because they were related, although it made him happy to know he had another cousin to spoil and tease. His father did not even have to tell him to intern the girl because Naruto won him over when she told him that she wanted to help her friend even though they hadn't told her their pain. Most people ignore the pain of others, they only care about themselves. His cousin wanted to help but feared the rejection. He might be considered a rookie but it was a sign that his cousin had the makings of a hero.

His father did not even have to try to convince him to intern Naruto. Cousin or not, he wanted to help her. If she wanted to know more about the history of their clan then he would bring her to his father. He would tell her about her mother and how close she was to his father because it was only right. He could never imagine the pain she went through, not knowing who her parents were.

' _You can read all the books you want Eisuke and talk as much as you want in understanding their pain but you can never really understand someone if you can't understand their pain,'_ his father's husky voice echoed in his ear. At the age of ten, he did not understand what his old man meant but at the age twenty-three, he was starting to understand the reality of his father's words.

It was easy to talk to someone and say you understand their pain but you could never understand the depth of their turmoil. After seeing so many kids scarred by the system, by their parents, he understood just how unprepared he could really be. The loss of a parent? He could never really click with it. His parents were alive, healthy and strong. The loss of a sibling? His two sisters were fine.

Knowing this, Eisuke picked his interns and sidekicks who did not grow up like he did. If he wanted to be a good hero then he needed to try and understand how the people feel. His job was not just to protect the rich or the poor, his job needed him to protect the people that were going to be let down by the system. Some of his sidekicks were stronger then he was because he knew he could never survived what they went through.

He was lucky that he could pass off his chakra as his quirk. His actual quirk was practically useless because who could be a good hero with a quirk that allowed you to breath underwater for just twenty minutes? Some people did not even have the luxury of having a quirk. His cousin from his mother's side was born quirkless and she had been ridiculed because of her lack of quirk.

"Eisuke, Uzumaki Naruto is here."

He prayed to all the gods that his cousin was not going to be pissed off when she realized he had neglected to tell her that he was her cousin.

* * *

"You are the Uzushiokage!"

Naruto did not know whether to yell at Eisuke for not telling her that they were related, for not telling her that he chose to intern her or to cover up her stupidity with a joke. Only an idiot would not connect the dotes that the two of them were related. The way some of the girls swoon at him in the Sports Festival and that autograph in the park should have been enough clues for her.

The red-haired man smiled. "I was going to tell you that I was the Uzushiokage but it never seemed like a good time!"

Never a good time? What about when she asked him if he was a reporter? She knitted her eyebrows together. Was she really going to waste her time by being angry with him? Her emotions were already all over the place with the bombshell Jiraya told her. The last few days had been draining for her as she tried to figure out whether she should continue to treat Jiraiya with the silent treatment or forgive him for not telling her. Like Eisuke told her, it was not easy for her godfather to look at her.

"Did you choose me because I was your relative?" Her relative raised his eyebrow at her. She frowned. Why was he giving her that expression? It was a good question in her mind. He must have figure out they were related in the Sports Festival. For goodness sake, their last names were the same.

He shook his head. "I don't choose my interns or my sidekicks because of who they are related to or their strength," Naruto blinked her eyes at this revelation. The red-haired man glanced at the photo to the side, which was a picture of himself and a red-haired man with tired eyes. "If I did that then I would have asked for your classmate Bakugou or Endeavour's son, but I did not do it. I chose you because you resonated with me. I chose you because of your eyes."

Her eyes? She touched her face. Was there something wrong with her eyes on that day? She did not remember much about what she looked like or whether she bothered to do her hair. All she could remember was the turmoil in Shouto. The desire Izuku had to win. The desire to prove herself to the whole world that she was more than what they thought she was.

"There is nothing physically wrong with your eyes," Eisuke looked straight into her eyes. "What was wrong was the fact that you looked like you saw things that no one your age should never see. You looked like a girl that needed a reason to live, to smile again. Somewhere during the Sports Festival, you started to show a little bit of your emotions."

If a stranger could see all that then she feared what the people of Konoha saw. Did they see her as a broken girl? Did they think she was weak? Because she was not that girl anymore. She was Naruto Uzumaki. She was going to live in the present and live her life like she wanted to live her life.

"So you pity me."

Red hair shook at those words. "Pity? If I pity you then I will also pity my father. My old man never liked it whenever someone looked at him with pity when he had nightmares of losing his home. I don't know what you went through and I can't imagine what you went through in your life but I will tell you that I don't have an ounce of bravery that you have."

Naruto could only blink her eyes at his words. A huge part of her wanted to puff her chest up and to bask in his compliments, but a small part of her felt like shaking her head. The insecure part of herself just wanted to deny his words. For all the confidence she showed the world, she did not really feel as comfortable as she showed the world. It was sometimes hard to build herself up from the amount of times she got put down by her female classmates in the Academy.

"I'm not as a brave as you think I am."

The young man raised his eyebrow. "Didn't you threaten your classmates in front of live television? I don't know many people that were willing to ruin their image in television because of a prank."

Naruto snorted. That was brave? It was common sense to threaten Mineta and Denki for their stupid actions. Did they think they could get away with those actions? They were damn lucky that she did not even try to prevent them from having children in the future. If it was not for the fact that it was against the law then she would have done it. She would have given them a permanent lesson on why they should not try to be perverts.

"Would you expect me to be docile and let them get away with it?"

"Nope," Naruto blinked her eyes and the red-haired man smiled. "I have two little sisters and if I see a boy try to make them do something that they don't want to do, then I would make sure that they won't feel proud of being a man."

"Why don't you let your sisters take care of it?"

Eisuke chuckled. "Akane would probably kill them herself since she doesn't like anyone to fix her problems. Kiko is a different story entirely. My youngest sister is nothing like you or Akane…she is just too gentle to try and punch some asshole in the face. It is funny because she…"

The softness and love in the hero's tone spoke volumes about how much he loved his sisters. The stories might show how much he knew about them but it was the gentleness in his voice that told her about the amount of love that he had for them. It must be nice, she thought, to have a brother that was willing to do anything for you. If her parents were alive then would she have a brother or a sister? Would she have been as protective of them as the Uzushiokage was of his sisters? Or would they be the worst of enemies?

"Well I think we spent more time talking about my family then it is necessary," Eisuke said; his tone turned so serious that Naruto found it hard to believe that this was the same man who gushed about his sisters. "I should start talking to you about your internship."

Oh right. The internship. She did not came to his office because she found out they were related. The reason for her journey to the other side of the city was because of her internship. As much as she wanted to learn more about her family, to build a connection with them, she needed to complete the task given to them by the school.

"What don't you know?"

Naruto blinked her eyes. "What?"

"As much as I want to think that you chose me because you wanted to get to know me and my beautiful personality," Naruto snorted. The red-haired man grinned at her. "I know you came here for another reason. I know you probably had better offers than me so why did you choose me? Besides the fact that we might be related."

Why did she choose him? No one really ever asked her about her reasons for doing things. Jiraiya was the one who chose for her to come here. In Konoha, her opinions had rarely been acknowledged by her teammates since they thought she did not know anything. Hinata had always gone along with what she wanted to do, never really arguing her for her actions.

Why did she choose him? She told Jiraiya that out of all the heroes, who offered to intern her, that Uzushiokage suited her. It was probably not true. Naruto liked being flashy, liked having the attention on her at times and her cousin did not have as much attention as Endeavour. She could have gone to Blue Jeanist but it never felt right. They might be able to teach her on how to be a hero but there was something that was not there.

Looking at Eisuke, she realized what it was.

"Because you probably won't treat me like a child," Eisuke raised his eyebrow. Naruto rubbed the back of her neck and pulled out her headband from her bag. Call her stupid but she always felt the need to carry it with her. Perhaps she was being sentimental but she could not completely erase Konoha from her past. "You must know what this headband represents."

"It acknowledges the fact that you are a kunoichi of _Konoha_ ," Eisuke said; his tone became bitter when he uttered the name of her former village. Did he know something she did not know? She had a reason for not wanting to go back to the village but the people there were not completely bad. They were just terrible to her. "It also acknowledge that you are an adult. My father told me that once a child gets that headband then they are no longer consider a kid."

"If I go to the other heroes then they might treat me like a kid because of my age," Naruto admitted. "They won't let me do anything dangerous because of what society thinks a child should not do. I thought if I go to you then you might let me have a more hands-on approach…and you could teach me about our clan."

Her relative nodded and stared at the headband on her hands. There were so many emotions running through the man's eyes. Envy. Anger. Sadness. These were just some of the emotions but what stood out to her was the mournful look in his eyes.

He must be mourning for her loss of childhood but Naruto never really had a childhood.

Not in the same sense as her friends in Konoha or her friends in U.A High.

"I can teach you about how to be a good hero and the laws but if you want to know more about our clan then I am not the man for you," Eisuke sighed. "I can try and teach you sealing even though I am crap at it. Dad likes to say I am a disappointment as an Uzumaki because of my lack of ability to understand seals. If you want to learn the art of sealing then I will introduce you to my old man."

Seals? Did she want to learn seals? Naruto had never really thought about learning seals. She knew what they were, could probably make a decent bomb seal but that was the extent of her skills. It was not like the Academy tried to teach them or encourage them to learn it. They spent more time trying to teach them on how to throw a proper punch then seals.

"I don't know if I want to learn seals."

"Why not? An Uzumaki needs to know the art of seals even if it is just the basic idea," Eisuke rubbed his chin and closed his eyes. "Seals is an ancient art that has been passed down through the generations of Uzumaki. It is an art form that you should take pride in…or so Dad tells me."

"But shouldn't you be smart if you want to learn it? It is very difficult."

Her cousin snorted. "What does brain have to do with anything? It might be a bit more challenging if you are not smart but it does not mean that you can't learn it. It just means that you have to put more effort into it to see the results…it is kind of like learning a language. If you don't try or put the effort in then you can never get the outcome that you want."

The more and more Eisuke talked, the more Naruto started to understand about the kind of person he was. He was not like Kakashi-sensei, who did not seem to completely understand the struggles of getting everything right. He was not like Konohamaru's teacher, who insulted her for her bad chakra control. He was frank with her. He told her that she could do it and maybe she was imagining things, but maybe Eisuke was trying to encourage her.

It probably would not hurt her to learn seals.

* * *

(In Konoha)

Sakura could only blink her eyes at the sight of Kakashi standing outside the hospital. It had been around three years since she really saw her teacher. When she decided to apprentice under Tsunade, it meant that she had little to no time to spend with the man. Not that they could spend much time together. Naruto and Sasuke were gone, which left her without a team.

Kakashi-sensei was also too busy with searching for Naruto that he barely had time for her.

"Kakashi-sensei, what are you doing here?"

The silver-haired man did not answer. Instead his lone eye stared at her like he did not know what to think, like he did not know what to do with her. Had she done something for him to look at her like that? She barely had time for her own parents, little alone time for her friends. If it was not for the fact Ino dragged her out for some shopping and outing then she probably would not see anyone from Konaha 12 outside the hospital.

"You must have heard by now about Naruto," Sakura chewed on her bottom lip and nodded. She did not even need to hear it. She saw the Sport Festival with her patients. Her teammate had become a completely different girl from the girl that she grew up with.

"I saw the matches."

Kakashi nodded his head. "Naruto has always been unpredictable," Sakura snorted and the silver-haired man stared up at the sky. "I always presumed from her grades that she was not academically smart, but the fact that she became the school's first year representative tells me that Naruto is smart."

"Naruto has always been smart," Sakura chewed on her bottom lip as she recalled the early days of the Academy. "She might have terrible grades in the Academy but she wasn't always like this. I remembered that in our first year of school that she constantly got either the first or second spot. It used to annoy the crap out of me…"

It felt stupid to say those words. It felt even stupider if she admitted she used to taunt her teammate because of those words. As much as she hated to admit it, her teammate had always been a hard worker. When all the girls had been too busy playing or gossiping about Sasuke, her teammate would be studying her heart out. At the time Sakura and the other girls thought she was being stupid.

If anyone deserved to be number one then it was Sasuke. It should not be the girl that their parents warned them about, not the girl that seemed to think they were stupid for liking Sasuke. That was their rationale. It was a stupid rationale when she thought about it.

"Why did it annoy the crap out of you?"

Sakura sighed. "Because if anyone should try to be number one then it should be Sasuke, not Naruto." Kakashi raised his eyebrow and the pink-haired girl smiled bitterly. "I know it sounds stupid but I was six. I didn't like the fact that she got better grades then me or…"

"That Sasuke paid more attention to her."

Green eyes widened at those words. Sasuke? Right everything went back to him. Ino and her used to bully Naruto, taunt her because of their love for him. They tried to do everything to get his attention while her teammate did not need to do anything to get his attention. His black eyes had always been glued to Naruto and those rare amount of times he showed emotions…they were always for her teammate.

"What are you talking about?"

"Sakura, I wanted to find out if there was another reason for Naruto to run away like she did," Sakura felt her throat dried up as the dots in her head started to connect together. "I went through her files with Iruka and he made an interesting comment that Naruto had been bullied in the Academy. He told me that you were one of the girls. You were a kid I understand but did you ever tell Naruto sorry? Did you say something to Naruto when she was in the hospital?"

Her knees wobbled at Kakashi's words. Was he going to blame her for what happened to Naruto? She was only a little girl when she made those hurtful comments to her teammate. She was jealous and angry that her teammate did something that she struggled to do. Was it right for her to act like that to her blond-haired teammate? No. There was no way it was right but Naruto forgave her.

Naruto never treated her like she was an enemy.

"I am not the reason she left!" Sakura tried her hardest to keep her tone even. "And what if I did say something? I was angry and hurt! She knows that. Naruto knows I never meant to say those words to her. Yes I bullied her but so did most of the girls in the Academy. Why should I say sorry? If anyone should be sorry then it should be most of the girls in our class! I can't be the reason she left because if it was me then she would have left a long time ago. She wouldn't have been so nice to me. She would…"

' _You're useless! It should have been Sasuke that came back! Why did you come back!"_

Her knees wobbled at the memory. Could those words have really affected her teammate? Could her childish words spoken out of anger and hurt really destroyed Naruto? There was no chance. Naruto was strong. She had so much confidence that Sakura wished she had the confidence the girl had. Her female teammate always boasted about how strong she was, always talked about being the one in charge and how she was going to become Hokage.

There was no way she could be the reason for Naruto's action.

Kakashi could accuse her but there was no chance in hell that she was the reason. Naruto did not care about people's opinion. She never did. If she gave a crap about them then she would never wear that disgusting orange jacket or stay close to Sasuke. She would never make claims or do those stupid pranks.

There was just no way she could be the reason.

* * *

 **A/N: Please review and tell me what you think especially with the interaction between Naruto and Uzushiokage.**


	24. Chapter 24

A/N: I would like to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows as well as everyone that reviewed the last chapter

* * *

"Why did the Uzumaki clan come to Japan? Why didn't they go to the other countries in the Elemental Countries?"

She was listening to Eisuke as he explained to her about what he look out for in patrols. The question had been nagging her ever since Jiraiya told her about the possibility of the hero being her relative. As much as Naruto grew to love Japan, she could never deny the fact that their two countries were different. The culture was just too foreign for her to adapt at times and she was young. She could not even imagine what it was like for Eisuke's father.

Her cousin stopped talking and stared at her. His green eyes showed conflict as if he thought she would not like the answer, like he thought she was too young to understand the issue.

"Not all the members of the Uzumaki clan came to Japan," Eisuke informed her, his tone turned tired. "A majority of them chose to stay here because Japan felt more similar to the Elemental Countries. If you think Japanese's culture is different then you should see America. A few members chose to live in Korea, China and even America. I think we still have a member or two in the Elemental Countries…but I am not sure since they don't keep in contact with us."

Naruto nodded. "But why come to this part of the world? Why not the other countries in our part of the world?"

"Our village was destroyed near the end of the Second Shinobi War," her cousin chewed on his bottom lip. "And a lot of people will think that it was just a consequence of war but Dad never saw it like that. He said that Konoha and Uzushiogakure made a deal that in exchange of sending a group of our ninjas to them, Konoha must help to protect our village. When our village got attacked by Kumogakure, Kirigakure and Iwagakure, Konoha did not lift a hand to help our people."

Naruto shook her head. "There is no way that is true. I know the Third Hokage and he would have been willing to help the village's allies. Did we contact them for help?"

"It was father and his older brother's job to send the messages to the Hokage," Eisuke grimaced. "Father said he used to keep sending messages, hoping and praying that Konoha would reply and send the soldiers we needed. Our village was protected by seals but if the ally had someone who had enough knowledge of seals with them then it would have been easy to break it down."

"So your father blames the Hokage."

"Yes," Eisuke sighed. "He thinks that Konoha did not bother to help us was because they wanted our soldiers. They probably thought if our village was destroyed that we would come to their village to stay. Most of the villagers came to the same conclusion as Dad and decided that any village was better than Konoha."

"Why Japan?"

"Because Japan is a symbol of hope for us," Naruto raised her eyebrow and the young man sighed. "It might sound hard for you to believe but this part of the world is so much safer than the Elemental Countries. My Dad decided to come here because he did not want his future children to live constantly in fear that one day another war would break out, and we might be forced to go and live somewhere else. He made the same decision as any refugee would have made."

The blonde nodded. In a way she understood why most of her relatives chose to live here, but she could not wrap her head around the fact that Konoha would do this. There was just no way the Third Hokage did not send soldiers to them. He always told her about the importance of the allies. Konoha believed in the concept of teamwork and friends. There was just no way this happened.

"You seem surprised."

"I might have left Konoha but I know the people of my village and I know the Third. He would have never allowed this to happen!" Eisuke raised his eyebrow at her; giving her a look of pity as if he thought she was in denial about her village. Maybe she was in denial but Naruto would never believe the man, who she saw as a grandfather, would do this.

Then again what did she know? Politics was not something she took the time to learn even though a Hokage should know something about the subject.

"He might not allow it to happen but maybe someone else would allow it," Naruto chewed on her bottom lip. Was there someone who was willing to let a whole village be destroyed? Not even the council members could be that cruel. Yet something told her that she was being an idiot again. There was always that one man. From her memories, there had always been a shady man who always had his eyes on her. She did not see him all the time but the times she did…he almost frightened her. He never spoke to her but his eyes always seemed power hungry.

She certainly never felt human whenever he looked at her.

"Why would the person want more soldiers? Isn't it enough that the two villages have a treaty?"

"Politicians are greedy assholes," Eisuke replied; he shrugged his shoulders. "We both think that it might be enough but this isn't how they think. They probably feared us because we have a very good understanding of seals. Seals might not seem something since it is just a piece of paper with a couple of characters thrown in like a code…but it has the potential of subduing a strong monster, silencing a person and etc. It is kind of terrifying if you think about it. If he could get more soldiers with that skill then the village would be indestructible."

' _ **It is a seal that is keeping me in your tiny body!**_ "

The bitterness in the Kyuubi's words reminded her of the fact that it was the seal which linked them together. It was the seal on her stomach which contained the monster. The Fourth Hokage was amazing when she thought about it. He was able to create a seal that kept the monster inside of her. How was he able to create it? She chewed on her lip. How could he make a seal on the spot?

Could she do the same thing if she studied seals?

She could not wait to learn sealing to find out the answers to her questions.

* * *

Naruto slipped her hands against her pockets and stared at the pedestrians around her. Danger. Eisuke wanted her to be on the lookout for any crimes, for people that looked like they needed some serious help. If someone was being robbed then she had his permission to kick the shit out of them. Those were, surprisingly, the exact words he told her when he finished showing her the patrol area.

She had been right to think Eisuke was going to allow her to have more freedom. Unlike the other heroes, he did understand about what she really was. Most of her classmates were only starting their careers now, never having the chance of facing danger.

"Aren't you supposed to be working, Whiskers?"

Blue eyes widened at the familiar nickname. There was only one person who called her by that stupid nickname. She curled her lips and twisted her body around to find Bakugou and Best Jeanist staring at her. Her classmate had his usual scowl plastered on his lips as he took in her appearance. His mentor stared at her and his eyes showed the disapproval that he had. He probably was disapproving Eisuke for his actions, probably thought her cousin was slacking off on his mentorship.

"I am," She flickered her eyes to the pedestrians. "Uzushiokage told me to look out for any suspicious activity and to help anyone that needs help. He already showed me my patrol area."

Red eyes flashed with envy at her words while green eyes flashed with alarm. She bit the inner corner of her cheek, controlling herself from explaining the reason for the hero's action. What could she say? That he allowed her because he knew damn well she could take care of herself. He gave her such a huge responsibility since he knew of the kind of missions that a ninja would have done.

No one would believe it.

"This isn't typical Uzushiokage's behavior," Best Jeanist said; his green eyes flickered around the area. "He knows very well that an intern should never be by themselves. I have made it clear to him when he was an intern himself."

Naruto nodded. "Uzushiokage has got a lot on his plate."

"He could have given the duty to one of his sidekicks," Best Jeanist replied. He looked down at her costume, eyebrow raised at her outfit. Was he really going to judge her for her outfit? It might not be the most fashionable outfit but it was comfortable. Comfort was what she looked for in her hero outfit since she was going to be wearing it for a whole day.

"Don't worry Best Jeanist, Uzushiokage has left me to supervise her," the blonde twisted her head around and blinked her eyes at the sight of the sidekick, who brought her to her cousin earlier. What was her name again? It started with a K…was it Kana? No. She did not look like a Kana. Girls with the name Kana was usually a bitch in her experience and this girl had been nothing but nice to her.

Was it Kairy?

No.

Kairi, Naruto thought, slamming her fist against her palm. That was her name. Kairi was a pretty young woman with long violet hair and warm gentle brown eyes. Her senior must be older than her by a good four years since the sidekick admitted that she just started working for her cousin.

"I see," Best Jeanist replied; his tone spoke volumes of how much he didn't believe them. Bakugou flickered his eyes at them, his red eyes shone with curiosity. If it had been anyone else, they probably would believe her co-worker but her classmate was sharp. He might not act like it. He certainly made it seem like he did not have a lot of brains with the amount of swearing and his reckless way of fighting, but Bakugou got the second highest score in their entrance exam.

It showed that he got some brains.

"The Uzushiokage knows the protocol but he just forgot to tell Naru-chan here, Best Jeanist-kun," Bakugou raised his eyebrow at the casual use of nickname while Best Jeanist looked unfazed at how close the girl was acting towards him. This must not be the first time he met the sidekick or the first time the girl used the nickname. The tired look in his eyes told Naruto that he just gave up with correcting the girl.

"Is that so? It doesn't seem like Uzushiokage to forget it," Best Jeanist said.

Kairi shrugged her shoulders. "Well things have been hectic at the office since the government isn't exactly pleased with the fact that Uzushiokage keeps being a lazy ass to send the paperwork to them."

Lazy ass? The fondness in her co-worker's voice told her that she did not mind the fact Eisuke forgot to do the paperwork. Her lips twitched. The look in Kairi's eyes almost reminded her of Hinata whenever she talked about Kiba. Did her senior join the company because she liked her cousin? It would make sense. There were a lot of girls who had taken the time to look at her cousin with some appreciation.

"With the amount of criminals he stopped, I am not surprised that he forgot to do the paperwork." Best Jeanist acknowledged. He glanced at his watch and nodded. "Give my greetings to Uzushiokage when you see him…and tell him to pay up the bet that we made."

Her coworker put on a tight smile and nodded her head. Tension seemed to be tight around her shoulders, the way her co-worker seemed to clench her hand told Naruto that the young woman was keeping herself in check. The two of them waited till the hero and her classmate were gone from their sight before relaxing their shoulders.

Kairi sighed. "You are lucky that I was in the area or Best Jeanist might have dragged you back to the office and scolded Eisuke for being lenient with you," Naruto blinked her eyes and the young woman looked up at the sky. "As much as I respect Best Jeanist, he can be quite strict when it come to his interns and he expect the same from the other heroes."

"Did you do your internship with Best Jeanist?"

Kairi shook her head. "I did my internship in another city but I had a friend who did his internship with him," her coworker shuddered. "Best Jeanist was not impressed with his outfit and hairstyle so he decided that he would give him a makeover. He has a certain ideal on how a hero should present themselves to the public…in their outward appearance."

What the hell was Bakugou thinking when he decided to intern with him? Naruto stared at her classmate's back, her lips curled to a frown. She was not an expert when it came to appearances or to outfits in general, but Bakugou did not look anything like a hero. If what Kairi said was true then her classmate was going to go through hell for the next couple of days.

She was glad that she made the right decision not to work under him.

"Does Eisuke really have a lot of paperwork? Or did you lie so that he doesn't get into trouble?"

"Both," Kairi grinned. "If it was not for the fact he use one of his clones to do the paperwork then he would forget to do the paperwork. Best Jeanist doesn't know that so it is easy for him to think Eisuke forgot to do the paperwork since boss spends most of his time not only catching minor villains, but also getting kids out of abusive households or catching kidnapped kids."

Naruto nodded. "But he does all that and he isn't in the top ten?"

"Boss doesn't bother to get the people's attention," her coworker thinned her lips. "And he might sign photographs and talk to the civilians but he doesn't really make an effort to charm the world around him. It probably doesn't help that he doesn't really advertise his actions. Most heroes would advertise or inform the world that they were able to save some kid from their abusive parents, or from their kidnappers but…Uzushiokage doesn't do that."

The blonde tilted her head. "Why not?"

"Because some of the other sidekicks told him not to do it," Kairi looked at the running children and smiled tightly. "He can announce that they are found if they were kidnapped but what happened to them should be kept to the courts and not to the papers. It is a nightmare to be remembered as the kid that was kidnapped or who had shitty parents. It will be something that will be carried throughout your life. Can you imagine being constantly reminded of what happened in your life? You go to a new school and they remind you of how shitty your life was?"

She could almost imagine it. If Konoha had another academy school and she transferred then the kids would remind her that she was a monster. They would remind her about her lack of parents. Didn't she feel a little bit happier in Japan because no one reminded her about her lack of parents? Or the fact the adults hated her because of the demon inside of her?

"It is sad that he isn't acknowledge enough."

"Maybe but Uzushiokage doesn't mind the fact that he isn't as popular as the other heroes," Kairi smiled. "He just wants to save people even if these people claim that they don't want to be saved."

How could he save the people if they don't want to be saved?

How could he do it without losing hope? Without giving up? Without knowing them?

This was the questions which ran through her head on her first day. If she couldn't figure out the answers to her question by the end of the week then she would ask Eisuke. She would ask him about his ability to do it because Naruto had forgotten what it was like. She wanted to learn as a hero and as a person. She wanted to know how she could keep protecting the people even if one day they treat her like shit.

She probably made the right decision to go with her cousin.

* * *

"How was the first day on the job?"

Jiraiya asked his apprentice when she returned back to her home. He knew it was a stretch to think that maybe his goddaughter was going to ease up with the silent treatment and start talking to him again. How could she ever forgive him? It was her right to be furious with him. He stayed with her for the last couple of weeks, knew her for a good couple of years and yet he kept it a secret from her.

His goddaughter did not answer. Jiraiya sighed. Right he was going to deal with another day of silent treatment. They really needed to have a talk about everything. If not about how wrong he was to hide it from her then he needed to tell her about who they were. He never had the chance to tell her since Naruto was either giving him the silent treatment or went to her bedroom.

He was damn lucky Naruto didn't kick him out of the apartment.

"It was interesting," Jiraiya blinked his eyes and Naruto twisted her head to look at him. Tentative hope shone through her eyes. Her lips were curled into a tiny smile, which screamed to him about how much she enjoyed working with her potential cousin. "Uzushiokage is nothing like I expected."

The teen chewed on her bottom lip. "He chose me because I resonated with him. He didn't choose me because I could be his cousin or because I was strong…he chose me because I did something to resonate with him."

Resonate? Jiraiya stared at his goddaughter, who had her arms wrapped around herself. What did his goddaughter do to leave such a strong impression? He knew what made him decide train Naruto. Her parents might have influence him to train her but there was something about her that made him want to do it. Her use of the sexy-jutsu aside, the determination she had in trying to make him want to train her was commendable.

She was a hard worker but could the heroes pick that out from the Sports Festival?

"I didn't get the chance to ask him about my parents since Uzushiokage was born in Japan," Naruto admitted; her tone carried so much tiredness that Jiraiya felt guilty for being the cause of her exhaustion. "I thought I could continue the silent treatment until I asked him about my parents, but he made it clear to me from the beginning that he wasn't born in the Elemental Countries."

Jiraiya waited for the girl to confirm what he thought she was trying to tell him.

"What were my parents' names? What did they look like?" Naruto took a deep breath. "Did they really love me? How did my Dad die? I can guess that my mum died during childbirth but Dad? I mean he should be in the hospital or at home since childbirth takes place there. Also what did…"

Jiraiya stared at his babbling goddaughter. Could he really tell her the truth? He could talk to her about her mother and tell her about who she was, but Minato was a different story. As much as he loved his student, there was no denying the fact he and the Third made a terrible decision by telling the whole village about who Naruto was. His godchild was going to be heartbroken when she realized that her father was the one that sealed the demon inside of her.

Could he really tell her this?

' _Do you know how many times I cried because I didn't know who my parents were?'_

"Before I talk to you about your parents, I want you to know that I am sorry for not telling you about them," Blue eyes shone with understanding and Jiraiya wondered if the brat was trying to make him feel even more guilty for not telling her. The way her eyes shone reminded him too much of her father. "I was wrong to do it to you and I was selfish to think of myself first."

"Do I really look a lot like my parents?"

"When you were twelve, you looked more like your father," Jiraiya felt his throat dried up as he recalled his first meeting with Naruto. Her hair might have been long but he saw a lot of Minato in her, from her eyes to the shape of her nose. "But now you are starting to look a lot like your Mum."

"Was my Mum pretty?" Naruto touched her hair and flickered her eyes towards the lone picture of her and her teammates. Jiraiya chewed the inner corner of his cheek as a memory of Minato becoming jealous popped in his mind. How many times did the boy got jealous because someone complimented his crush? All that and the boy did not even have the courage to ask her for a date.

"She was very beautiful," Naruto beamed. "And your Dad was no slouch when it comes to his looks. He had a couple of fangirls in the academy."

"How did they meet? And how did they fall in love? Was it love at first sight?"

Jiraiya shook his head. "Love at first sight? Maybe for your Dad but not for your Mum. It took her a while to fall in love with your father, which is not surprising since your old man was terrible when it came to girls."

"How did my Mum fall in love with Dad?"

He felt his lips twitched upwards as he launched into the story on how Minato saved Kushina. The look of wonder and joy in those blue eyes eased the pain in his heart. It might have been hard at times to look at their child, might have been hard to watch her but just talking to her about them was enough for him to forget. For just a brief amount of time, he could just picture Kushina and Minato standing behind her with smiles on their faces as he told them about their sappy story.

"Their love story seems like a plotline for some cheesy romance movie," Naruto commented; the wistfulness in her tone told him that his goddaughter would like to find the same kind of love that her parents had. "I thought that their kind of love story happens in the movies but it doesn't seem like the case for them."

"The love that they had for each other was sometimes too sickening if you asked me," his goddaughter giggled and Jiraiya felt his lips twitched as he recalled the amount of times he tried to get Minato to find some other girl to fall in love with. "You know I tried to get your Dad to find another girl to date until your Mum came around? Your old man refused. He said that his heart only belonged to your mother and that is it."

"Who confessed first?"

"Your Mum," Naruto gawked and Jiraiya snorted as he recalled the bets that were made on who was going to confess first. He lost a whole grand because of Minato. "Your Dad was too much of a coward to say to your Mum that he liked her. He was always afraid she was going to reject him even though she made it pretty clear that she liked him."

"So my Dad was a wimp?"

"When it came to love," Jiraiya snorted. "He was a very strong ninja and a genius too, but he was an absolute idiot and a wimp when it came to telling your Mum about how he felt about her. Every Valentine's day, he would try to write some crappy poem to confess his feelings to your Mum and then he would never have the courage to send it."

Naruto chewed on her bottom lip. "What were my parents' names? It is nice that you are finally telling me about their love story but I want to put a name to the stories."

"Your Mum was Uzumaki Kushina and she was an amazing kunoichi who loved ramen as much as you do," his goddaughter grinned at those words and Jiraiya felt his heart clenched as the image of Kushina flooded into his mind. "And your father was Namikaze Minato."

The smile on his goddaughter's face dropped. "Namikaze Minato? You are kidding right? Ero-Sennin, you are joking right?"

He wished this was some kind of sick twisted joke that he wanted to play on her. It would be easier to blame himself then for him to see her become upset. He could only take a seat beside Naruto as she begged for him to tell her that her father was not the Fourth Hokage. He could only wrap his large arms around her, listening to her as she begged him to tell her that her father was someone else.

There was just no words he could use that could comfort her.

"My father can't be the Fourth Hokage," she yelled. "If he was then why did the villagers treat me like shit? Why did he let the whole village know that I carried the Kyuubi? Why did he seal the demon inside of me? Didn't he know it would make my life hell? If he loved me so much like you claimed he did, then why did he do this to me? Wasn't there anyone else he could have used? Why me?"

The tears in her blue eyes broke him. What could he tell her? No matter what he said to her, she was still going to be hurt. It must have been easier for her to think the Hokage had chosen her because her parents were already dead. Now for her to learn that her hero was her father…it must have ruined her image of him.

"Naruto, could you ask someone to give up their child to seal a demon inside of them?" The pain in her blue eyes told him that she knew the answer. Just like her father, she could never ask someone to give up their child to save the village from a monster. "Minato was a good leader and he was smart but he didn't have common sense at times. He was naïve and he thought that the villagers would have honored his wishes and see you as a hero. He didn't realize that the villagers would have hurt you."

"Then why did the villagers treat me like shit? You said that I looked like him!" Jiraiya nodded and Naruto knitted her eyebrows. "So how come the villagers didn't see that? Why did they treat me like shit? They always make it a point to remind us that the Fourth Hokage gave his life for the village so why the fucking hell did they treat me like shit? If I am his child, if I look like him then shouldn't they have honored his promise? I lost my parents that night! He didn't just sacrifice himself but also his newly born daughter!"

Jiraiya could only hugged his goddaughter and try to sooth her. How could he answer her questions? How could he tell her that the villagers didn't want to see what was right in front of them? That they thought she must have been born from one of the few Uzumaki's refugees that came to their village. There was nothing he could say that would make her feel better.

He could only listen to her as she cried her heart out and pray to God that he made the right decision to tell her about her parent's names.

* * *

A/N: Please review and tell me what you think.


	25. Chapter 25

A/N: I want to thank everyone that reviewed and added this story to their favourites and follows.

* * *

For as long as Naruto could remember, she had always admired the Fourth Hokage.

Out of all the Hokages, Minato Namikaze was the youngest person to reach the status of Hokage. He killed a thousand men in just one night and had the most powerful jutsu. He was also the man that sacrificed his life to save the village, sealing a demon inside of her. They say that even though his regin had been short, he had shown the villagers that he was more than capable of being a leader.

It was ironic that the man she admired was also her father. Her father chose the village over her, chose to seal the monster inside of her and asked the villagers to see her as a hero. She wanted to hate him. She wanted to think he was a monster but Naruto could not bring herself to do it. If she had to choose between saving a group of people or her own child's happiness then she would have chosen the village. Her father swore to protect the village and for that she could not fault him.

What she could fault him was the fact that he thought it was a smart idea to tell the villagers that she was the jinchuuriki.

"I want you to read this book and summarize everything in here," Naruto blinked and stared up at her smiling cousin, who dropped a huge book on her table. She raised her eyebrow. Wasn't he going to teach her on how to be a professional hero? What does a book have to do with anything?

"Read the title," Eisuke encouraged. The blonde picked up the bright red book and turned to the cover. Bright blue eyes widened at the name of the title. _Sealing for absolute idiots._ Was he trying to encourage her to learn the art of sealing? Or was he implying that she was so dumb that a book like this was useful for her? She chewed on her bottom lip.

"Why are you giving me this book?"

"Dad said that he won't teach you until you read the book," Naruto raised her eyebrow and the red-haired boy sighed. "He came to the conclusion that it will be more difficult for a half-Uzumaki to appreciate the art of sealing or understand it, so he wrote this book. To be fair, he jumped to this conclusion because our cousin and I struggled to learn the art. Akane has no problem with it."

"So he thinks I might be an idiot?"

Eisuke shook his head. "He doesn't think you are an idiot…he just thinks that you might have the potential to be like me."

Does that mean his own father think he was an idiot when it came to seals? Naruto looked down at the book and traced the contents. She should be pissed off with the title but before Jiraiya and Kakashi, there had been no one that was willing to teach her. This was unorthodox way to teach her but she was unorthodox. If she could learn the shadow clone from a scroll then she could do this.

"When do I meet your Dad?"

Her cousin grinned. "Probably next week. Right now he is in Hosu with Mum since she needs to handle funeral arrangement with her sister."

A week. He was giving her a week to read this book and understand the complications in sealing. She tilted her head. This would be easy for her. All she had to do was have the clone read the damn book while she focused on her internship. There was no way she was going to have difficulty understanding the book. If she could survive and understand physics then sealing was going to be a piece of cake.

"Are you going to take me out for a mission?" Naruto slipped the book into her bag and stared at her cousin. She was happy with the book and despite the incident with Best Jeanist, she did enjoy the patrol. It was nice to walk around the streets and beat up some asshole that tried to rob a store with their quirk.

It was nice but she wanted a challenge.

Eisuke raised his eyebrow. "You didn't like the patrol? Personally I thought my way of doing things is better than your part of the world. Didn't they make you do meaningless jobs like capture some lost animal or babysit some brat?"

Naruto grimaced and stared out at the window, where the sound of the laughing children could be heard. He was right. When she first started out as a genin, the Hokage would give her team some missions that did not really feel like ninja missions. It was to improve your teamwork, Kakashi-sensei would try to reason with her whenever she wanted to yell at the Hokage for a better mission.

It might improve their teamwork but those jobs were meant for children that were in the Academy.

"I like patrol but I just want some action."

Her cousin ruffled her hair and the blonde could not stop herself from blinking at him. Not many people ruffled her hair. Jiraiya, Iruka-sensei and even Kakashi-sensei had been one of the few people who did this to her. The others would just smile or ignore her actions. Some people would scold her for her words; they would remind her that she was still a beginner.

"You are not the only one that wants some action," Eisuke grinned. "I remember when I was an intern, I begged Best-Jeanist for some cool jobs to do but he always make a point to tell me that patrol is important. When action happens then take action, don't go looking for it."

Naruto nodded and stared at her cousin. Was that why he was not looking for the Hero Killer? Wasn't he interested in finding him? If he wanted to save people then why was he not searching for him? The heroes needed saving too. Iida's brother got hurt and so many others…wasn't it a hero's job to attack the people that endangered their lives.

"You look thoughtful," Eisuke tilted his head. "What are you thinking about?"

The blonde chewed on her bottom lip. "A hero's job is to save people right? So why aren't you searching for the Hero Killer? He already hurt so many heroes so why aren't you looking for him?"

Eisuke grimaced while the other sidekicks now looked at them. Most of them stared at her cousin with curiosity as if they were also interested to know why he was not looking for the man. A hero should save people those were her cousin's words and it seemed like he did try to save people, but it made no sense on why he was keeping quiet.

It made no sense why the other heroes were keeping quiet.

"Stain is elusive," Eisuke rubbed his chin and pointed to the map of the city that was hung on his wall. "His pattern of attack are always at the alleyway and the people that he attack are heroes. I know this much but I don't know who his next target will be or why he targets them. At first I thought he is out for revenge since some of the heroes he attack are well-known in the industry for being there for the money and not for the heroics. Now I don't know."

"Why?"

"Ingenium," Naruto blinked her eyes and Eisuke grimaced. "Ingenium is a great hero and there is no denying the fact that he cares about saving people. Why attack him? What did he do? I don't understand what his end-goal is. Once I figure out why he attacks the good heroes and his pattern of attack then we can attack. Once we have a better clue on how he is able to attack the heroes and how he does it then we can attack."

"But the other heroes are going to be sacrificed until you can figure it out," she pointed out.

Her cousin frowned. "Yes but there is also a potential that another hero can stop him."

What was the point of being a hero if you were being cautious? The more cautious you were, the more likely that more innocent people would get hurt. She chewed on her bottom lip. How could he just sit there and not do anything about it? It was wrong.

It was just wrong for her cousin to do this.

* * *

Eisuke could only rub the back of his neck and stared down from the building. He flickered his eyes towards his young cousin—her blue eyes shone with excitement. A kunoichi she might be but she was still a teenager. It seemed like no matter what occupation you had, you still had the characteristics suited for your age.

"So what am I going to do?"

"I attack the criminals and you get the hostages out," Eisuke informed her. Blue eyes shone with even more excitement and he felt his lips curled upwards. It seemed like it was the right decision to let Naruto in with the action. She might be having some kind of funk but it seemed like she was willing to forget it for the mission. "If you get spotted then kick their asses but make sure that none of the civilians get hurt."

"What if I get caught?" Naruto asked.

His lips twitched. "You are a kunoichi right? Isn't it your job not to get caught?"

A wide smile appeared on her face and Eisuke was reminded of the photo that his father had of a little red-haired girl with the same smile. His father knew immediately Naruto was his cousin even before Eisuke suggested the idea to him. He refused to tell him how he knew, only just say that the girl was an Uzumaki and that was it.

Maybe the girl looked like she could be the child of Kushina.

"If I get caught then I won't be Naruto Uzumaki!" She boasted; her blue eyes glinted with so much confidence and mischief that Eisuke was reminded of Akane. His younger sister was the prankster in their family, always playing pranks on her teachers to his mother's annoyance. His father never scolded his sister, always telling her that she should plan her pranks better.

He rubbed his chin and stared down at the building. From what his clones had gathered, there must be around ten guards that were guarding this place. A few of them carried guns while others had dangerous quirks which could destroy the building. Out of the ten, he would need to first target the criminals with the dangerous quirk. He flickered his eyes to Naruto, who was already preparing herself for the jump down.

"Naruto…"

His cousin turned her head to look at him, eyebrows raised up with curiosity. The desire to save people shone in her eyes as well as the desire to prove herself. Who did she want to prove? To him? To their clan? He chewed on his bottom lip. What did her village do to her? There was no need for her to prove herself to him or their family. She was worthy of their last name even if she wasn't related to them.

"Yes Uzushiokage?"

"Be careful out there, Guardian." The blonde blinked her eyes. Blue eyes softened and the surprise in her eyes told him that she never expected to hear those words. She might have skill, might have the drive to be a hero but Naruto was still his cousin. He would care for her and guide her until his father came back from Hosu.

"I will, Uzushiokage."

With those words, Naruto jumped down from the building and made her way towards their targets. Maybe he should ask her why she chose orange as her superhero outfit, Eisuke mused, jumping down from the building. Shouldn't shinobi wear dark colors? Or was his old man pulling his leg when he told him that all ninjas wore dark clothes? He shook his head.

It was time to get the job done.

* * *

Naruto channeled her chakra to her ears and stared at the door opening, where she could see the hostages being tied up. Being a hero was definitely better than being a ninja, she mused to herself as her eyes locked on the hostages. These type of jobs were considered B-rank in Konoha, jobs that genin should never be allowed to do since it was out of their skill range.

Uzushiokage was giving her the chance to prove to herself that she was able to do these kind of jobs.

She flickered her eyes towards the walls and made a mental note of the location of the windows. Eisuke hinted he would not be pleased with her if she got caught by the villains or intentionally try to engage in a fight with them. The window seemed to be large enough for her and her clones to carry the hostages out. Now she figured out her exit, she would just need to figure out how to get inside without alerting them.

She slipped her hands into her pockets and made a mental note of the good hiding areas. The outfits that the guards wore also told her that they probably did not want the hostages to know their faces. It was a smart decision in the long run, but it was quite stupid too. All she needed was to henge herself into the average guard and they would never know the differences.

"You think we are going to get our ransom money anytime soon?" One of the guards asked as Naruto weaved her hands into the familiar handsigns of the henge. The tone in his voice spoke volumes on his frustrations for guarding the hostages. She chewed the inner corner of her cheek and slipped into the shadows, keeping her breathing and her footsteps light. One wrong move and everything might be over.

"Who knows!" The other guard replied, waving his hand. His dark eyes flickered to her hiding spot and for a brief moment, Naruto felt her heart stopped. She chewed on her bottom lip. His eyes lingered on her hiding place and the way his eyebrows were knitted together made her wonder if he knew she was here. "I think someone is here."

"What do you mean that you think someone is here? Doesn't your quirk allow you to sense if someone is here!" The other guard snarled as Naruto tip toed towards the hostages. He glanced around the room, no doubt trying to spot if she was here. "What the hell is wrong with your quirk?"

"There is nothing wrong with my quirk! I can smell a new scent among us but I can't pinpoint where it is coming from!" He growled. The man stared at the hostages, who were managing to hide their hope from their captors. If it was not for the fact that Naruto could see the subtle clues then she would never know. "It smells like a fox."

"You think there is a fox in the room," the other guard asked as Naruto crept closer to the hostages. He stared at his collegue like he was an idiot. "How the hell can we have a fox in the middle of the city? And why here? Have you ever stopped to use your head?"

Naruto bit her tongue. _Have you ever stopped to think that maybe someone spend a lot of time with foxes?_ She felt her heart rate increased when the other guard twisted his head to look at the scene. Did the bastard sense her? There was no way he could sense her. She was hiding in the shadows, making sure not to be anywhere close to the moonlight that seemed to lit areas of the room.

"There is a girl in this room," The guard commented, strolling around the room. He knitted his eyebrows together. "I can hear her mind but I can't detect her presence."

His colleague smirked. "I told you that there was someone here! Do you think she has an invisibility quirk, is that why we can't see her?"

' _ **Or maybe you are idiots that can't see properly,**_ ' the Kyuubi said; his tone hinted of his annoyance with the lack of brains that the guards had. Why was the damn fox talking? Was he trying to get her caught? She knitted her eyebrows together when the guard looked around. Did he hear the Kyuubi? Was that why he was looking around? She shook her head and stepped closer towards the hostages.

"Can you pick up another scent?" The colleague asked his partner. His dark eyes looked around the room, no doubt trying to pick up any differences in the room. He frowned.

His partner shook his head. "I can't smell anything new."

"Let us search the area and bring our intruders," The guard said, walking closer to the door. Naruto chewed on her bottom lip and grinned. She took another step closer to the hostages and released her henge. The two guards swirled their head at her direction but it was a good thing she was crouching underneath the crater.

She might have been caught if it wasn't for that.

This mission was definitely more fun than capturing a stupid cat.

 **~X~**

"You look like shit."

Bakugou could not stop himself from making the comment as he stared at Whiskers, who had her hands on her pockets as they waited for the train that took them back home. His fellow blonde looked physically fine but those stupid eyes of her looked like they were in hell. Just when the shitty girl started to make sense, she just had to make him confused. Shouldn't she be happy that her mentor trusted her? He should have wished that Uzushiokage made an offer instead of Best Jeanist.

If he knew Uzushiokage was more hands on then he would have chosen him.

"Didn't your mother tell you that you should compliment a girl, Explosive Head," his classmate drawled; she picked up her suitcase and swung it over her shoulder. "And what the fuck are you doing here? I have never seen you take the train."

He scowled. "I missed the first train and now I am stuck waiting for the next train."

Whiskers nodded and her blue eyes were fixed on the train rail. Was this really the girl that claimed to have a monster inside of her? A kunoichi. He knew the girl since their second year of middle school and nothing about her screamed ninja. Her hair was too damn bright and the outfits she wore when she was not in school were just too eye catching. The only damn thing which supported the idea she was a kunoichi was the times when she had no emotions on displayed.

"So…how is your internship?" Bakugou scowled at the reminder. "I heard from my coworker that Best Jeanist isn't the most relaxed mentors."

He snorted. "The bastard is the complete opposite of your damn mentor. He keeps lecturing me about what it means to be a damn hero like I don't know what it means."

"You don't know."

Was she going to lecture him too? It was bad enough he had to hear the damn thing for the last two days. The bastard even had the nerve to tell him that he did not like him. He chose him because he wanted to change him, because of his damn behavior. If it was not for the fact that the bastard was in the top five then he would never choose him.

"I should kill you for making that fucking comment."

His classmate stared out at the dark train rails. "You are an asshole, Bakugou. Everyone knows that and I don't understand why the hell you chose to be a hero when you don't like to comfort people. Being a hero isn't just fighting, it is about saving people and being there for them."

"You of all people should not lecture me about what a hero is," Whiskers blinked her eyes and Bakugou hated the clueless look on her face. This was the girl that defeated him! The girl that didn't even want to become a hero until their homeroom teacher told her that she was wasting her life to work in some café. "If it wasn't for that stupid teacher then you would never become a hero."

Whiskers kept quiet at his words. Those blue eyes did not look put down by his words—not that he expected it. He could swear at her and the girl would just ignore it like it was nothing. He threatened her and the blonde would never blink, always acting like she was better than him. She was not better than him. She just had more experience but as soon as he gained enough experience then he would win.

"The Sport Festival made me realize why I want to be a hero and how stupid I was," Bakugou raised his eyebrow. "I didn't think I was meant to be a hero until then. A hero should never give up. They should be willing to work hard…and I was not like that. There were things in my past that made me think I can't be a hero. I couldn't save a boy that I saw as a brother and because of that…"

She shook her head and smiled. Bakugou chewed the inner corner of his cheek to stop himself from telling the girl he knew about her past. Whiskers did not deserve to know he knew a little bit about her past. He would not give her that satisfaction. He did not know why frog girl never told her but Whiskers didn't need pity.

He acted like himself.

"I thought it was because of half and half bastard," Whiskers blinked her eyes and Bakugou stared at the clock. Five more minutes and their conversation could be done. "You liked the bastard and it hurt you to know that his father was an asshole."

"Of course it hurt me, he is my friend."

A friend his ass, Bakugou thought, scowling at the blonde. The way she blushed around the bastard was enough for everyone to see she liked him. You would have to be blind not to notice she liked him. The fact she babbled like an idiot was enough clues about her feelings. The half and half bastard liked her too. It was not obvious like Whiskers but the damn bastard kept looking at her whenever he thought no one was watching him.

The fact that the bastard lost his cool when he saw Naruto was injured was enough to show he cared about the girl.

"Did anyone tell you that you are bad liar?" Uzumaki made a sound of protest and Bakugou rolled his eyes. "I don't give a shit about your relationship with the half and half bastard but if you want the bastard to realize that you like him then make it more obvious to him."

"I don't like him!"

Bakugou rolled his eyes. "Sure you don't like him and I am a fucking idiot."

Why did he even bother with her? It was none of his business about who the damn bitch liked. He was going to become the number one hero. What his two blind classmates do was none of his business. Now if there was a bet going on then it was a whole different story.

* * *

 **A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter. Was Bakugou too out of character?**


	26. Chapter 26

A/N: I want to thank everyone that added this story to their favorites and follows as well as everyone that reviewed the last couple of chapters.

* * *

"I am going to change things a bit…we are going to go to Hosu for patrol."

Naruto blinked her eyes and stared at her cousin, who had a small frown playing on his lips. Hosu? For patrol? Was something up? Eisuke made it very clear to her about his stance on going after Stain. What changed his mind? Should she even question him? She was finally going to go to a different city in Japan, which she never did since she was always working.

"Eisuke, are you sure about taking her with you? Are you sure you are going to go after him? He already injured quite a few good heroes." Kairi reminded; her brown eyes shining with worry while the other sidekicks stared at him with concern. The young man nodded. His green eyes flashed with confidence but the shakiness in his legs told Naruto that he wasn't really that confident.

"Guardian needs to have more experience with the criminals," Eisuke lied. "I have been making her do recon for the last day and a half but I think she is more than capable to deal with a couple of criminals."

 _I have more experience than you think,_ Naruto thought, folding her arms against her chest. She chewed on the inner corner of her cheek to stop herself from saying those words out loud. Kairi and the other interns did not know where she came from, only Eisuke did. They might have some difficult childhoods but they did not receive a headband that considered them an adult when they were twelve.

"And Stain? He has been targeting heroes," Kairi reminded him. "You always make it a point to tell everyone not to act recklessly when we have next to little information. We don't know who his next target is or what his quirk is. We just know where he likes to attack."

The other sidekicks nodded their heads but none of them looked as concerned as the sidekick beside her. The worry in those brown eyes really did show the amount of care she had for Eisuke. It showed Naruto that the hero was not just her boss to her but maybe something even more. Did her cousin know? Or was he blind about it?

"I am not going to act recklessly," Eisuke paused and corrected himself. " _We are_ not going to act recklessly Kairi. Guardian and I are going to patrol the area of Hosu and see if there are anymore hints on how he attacked them…we might even visit Ingenium to see if he remembered how Stain attacked."

"Are you sure that it is a good idea?" Another sidekick asked; his blue eyebrows knitted together. "The guy is paralyzed. I don't think he wants to be reminded of the bastard that ruined his career."

Eisuke grimaced. "I don't want to remind him but as Guardian reminded me, the bastard is going to be attacking other heroes soon. Now no matter how much I dislike some of the heroes, they don't deserve to be attacked."

"But are you certain you want to bring Uzumaki?" Another sidekick asked and Naruto swore if sharkhead had eyebrows then the bastard would be knitting his eyebrows. "She is still a newbie."

The hero nodded. "Guardian might be new but she has a lot of potential in becoming one of the best heroes out there."

"She is going to be endangered!" Another sidekick yelled. "It doesn't matter how good she is at rescuing people, there is always a potential that she might get badly injured from the bastard. If you need backup then take someone else, don't bring the kid that is barely starting her career."

Kid. Did they really think her age was the damn problem? Naruto clenched her hands into a fist. She might not be as old as them and maybe she did not have enough experience when it came to this kind of job, but she knew how to fight. She fought a Hyuga and let her tell you that the gentle fist was not easy to stand up from. She had faced Zabuza and Haku, who were definitely stronger than the villains here.

She could handle this.

"Naruto is more than enough and that is it," Eisuke said; his green eyes hardened at the sidekick. The barely controlled anger almost frightened her; frightened her on how quick he was to anger. "Do you really think I don't know her capabilities? If I think she was going to slow me down then I would have left her here and let one of you supervise her. Don't let her age fool you, she has more experience than you think."

Naruto felt her heart swell at those words. He might be her cousin. He might have an idea about her past but it did not mean he should have so much faith in her skills. Why? Why did he have so much faith in her? She had not even shown him her true capabilities. What did she do to deserve this faith? It took her three years to get Iruka-sensei to acknowledge her and another two years for her to hear the words that she was one of his best students.

It felt good to be acknowledged from the very beginning.

"Eisuke, I think what Ken is trying to tell you that this battle might be too dangerous for her," Kairi explained; her eyes seemed almost calm. She fixed her eyes on her. "No one can deny that Naru-chan has a lot of fighting potential. Her showcase in the Sport Festival can tell everyone that she is no slouch but a Sport Festival battle is different from a potentially dangerous criminal. You can't make Stain her first real hero fight experience not when he could potentially cripple the two of you."

Her cousin kept his eyes locked on Kairi. "I wouldn't put Naruto in danger if I didn't think she has enough experience to deal with the bastard," Eisuke said; the loudness and firmness in his tone spoke volumes of his stubbornness. Naruto felt glad to know he was on her side. "I know very well that the Sport Festival battle is different from the real world but I am confident that she can help me handle him. Now my decision is final!"

For the first time in her life, Naruto did not know how to feel with the knowledge that someone was on her side from the very beginning.

No adult took her side before.

* * *

"Thank you for not changing your mind."

Eisuke tore his eyes away from the car in front of them and stared at his young cousin, who had a grateful smile on her face. The more time he spent with his cousin, the more he saw the damage that Konoha did on her. Behind those blue eyes was a girl who probably never felt accepted by the world. Why would Konoha do this to her, he would not know. It was definitely not because Naruto was an Uzumaki. She might have the last name of an Uzumaki but her appearance did not scream Uzumaki.

"Why would I change my mind? You have more experience than the newbies in my company," Eisuke replied. He cursed under his breath and honked when he realized that the driver in front of them might be sleeping in the car. He could understand the jam was long but it was no excuse to sleep.

"Aren't you worried that they might leave you? They weren't happy with your decision." His cousin asked; her blond eyebrows knitted together. She closed her sealing book and stared at him. "You need them don't you?"

Eisuke sighed. "I am not worried that they will leave me," he tapped his finger against the wheel. "We have our arguments but this argument was more for their concern for our safety. They don't know about you being a former kunoichi so they look at you and they see your age. They think Stain will be too risky for you since you don't have enough experience or training to deal with him but he is a deranged civilian, not a shinobi."

"So if he was a shinobi…"

"I would never let you even think of engaging him until I am certain that you can take him on," Eisuke answered firmly. He tightened his grip on the wheel as he recalled the numerous arguments that he had with his father about the strength of a hero and a shinobi. _No matter how corrupted a hero is, they still have some form of moral or why else would they take the job instead of becoming a criminal. They would never really fight dirty but a shinobi…a shinobi will always fight dirty._

"Why do you care about my safety so much? You just met me so why do you give a shit about my safety?" Naruto asked; her tone was so soft that Eisuke had to stain his ears to hear her words. He frowned. Why would he not care about her safety? Naruto could take care of herself. She made it clear in these last two days that she was more than capable of beating up the villains, but she was still under his care. She was still a member of his clan. She was his cousin. It was only natural for him to care.

"Naruto, didn't your godfather tell you that you were worth caring for? Or was he too grief-stricken that he blame you for…"

His cousin shook her head. "Ero-Sennin didn't raise me and the Third could never take me in. He gave me money and scolded me whenever I made my pranks…he loved me like his granddaughter and I loved him too, but it was never brought up."

Never take her in? Why could he not take her in? He kept his eyes focused on the road and allowed his mind to wander with the new piece of information. Why was his cousin so close to the Third Hokage? She might be an Uzumaki but it was not enough for the man to take notice, not when she lacked the knowledge of her clan. What stopped the Third Hokage from taking her in? There was nothing about her that made it seem like an impossible task.

"Then who raised you? Who took care of you before you became a kunoichi?"

"I lived in the orphanage until I was five," Naruto admitted; her blue eyes stared at the buildings with sadness. "The matron was not the nicest lady but she was not the worst one either. She ignored me and never called me by my name but she never hit me or anything. As soon as I turned five, I just decided that running away was better…I have a habit of running away from my problems."

"What happened after that?"

"I was in the streets for a couple of months until I met the Third," she admitted. Eisuke tightened his grip on the wheel at her words. The streets. There was no way in hell that the streets of Konoha was safe for a five year old girl. Didn't her caretaker look for her? Didn't the villagers see the girl and send her back to the orphanage? There must be a law about this kind of thing…right?

There had to be one.

"You seemed shock." Naruto said; her lips was curled into a smile but Eisuke knew she was not really amused. The girl was masking her pain and he blamed the system that failed her. "Shinobi villages don't give a shit about orphans, not like this part of the world. Didn't your Dad tell you? Orphans are a natural occurrence in the shinobi world. Your family could be murdered in cold blood and they would not even put you in an orphanage, not if you were in a shinobi school."

"I knew the Elemental Countries were different but not to this level," Eisuke said. He really was naïve about the world that his father and cousin grew up in. Was it a good thing? You were a child born in luxury as his father would like to say whenever he used to weep for the stories in the news. If you had been born in the Elemental Countries then you would quickly learn to harden your heart because the world expected you too.

Now looking at Naruto, he cursed harder at the Elemental Countries for being cruel to the very people that they needed to protect.

* * *

Naruto's blood froze at the sight in front of her.

There was so much fire surrounding the city along with so much smoke. She felt her throat dried up at the sight of the destroyed buildings. Who could have done this? She flickered her eyes towards Eisuke and gulped at the undeniable fury radiating in his eyes. She had never seen her cousin looked like this, not once in the last three days had she ever seen this much fury in his green eyes.

"Those bastards," Eisuke swore; he pulled his katana out of its sheath. He narrowed his eyes and tightened his grip on the katana. "I don't give a fuck about their sad past now, because nothing in the world could make up for this. Naruto, I am going to give you a different job to do…"

"You want me to evacuate the civilians?" Naruto asked, slumping her shoulder.

Eisuke nodded his head. "It is too risky for you to fight the villains that destroyed this place. There are going to be a lot of heroes now and none of them are going to be pleased that I let you handle whoever did this."

"So you want to save your reputation?"

Her cousin chewed on his lip. "Yes and no. I will get into a huge trouble with the government since you don't have a license to act freely and if they think that it is too dangerous for a student then I might get suspended. Another reason is that I don't know who these villains are and I won't forgive myself if their quirks are dangerous enough to kill you…"

 _Kill? Is he thinking this far already? And why does he care?_ Naruto stared at her cousin's green eyes and wondered if this was what it meant to have family. A family that only wanted to see her safe even though they knew she could take care of herself.

"Thank you," Naruto said. She smiled at her cousin, who blinked his eyes, and then stared at the burning buildings. "But I will send my clones to evacuate but I am going to go with you…"

Eisuke narrowed his eyes. "Are you really going to argue with me? I am ordering you…"

"Do you think I can evacuate them knowing that there is also a potential that you might die," she snarled and her cousin blinked his eyes. He knitted his eyebrows at her. "You have got parents, don't you? And you have your siblings? I don't think they will forgive me if you die! If I can face Orochimaru and survive then this will be a piece of cake."

"Nothing I am going to say is going to convince you to do what I say!" Eisuke said; he rubbed his forehead. "Fine but the moment I see that it is too dangerous then you are out of there, Naruto. Do you understand me?"

Naruto grinned and vigorously nodded her head. He shook his head, ruffled her hair and stared distantly at the burning buildings. Was he concern about the civilians or was he more concern for his mother? She knew his mother was currently in the city with his father but the blonde doubt a former shinobi could not handle a couple of lunatics. The man survived the second shinobi war and survived.

 _Ding._

She knitted her eyebrows together and stared down at her phone. Who would send her message at this time? Naruto chewed on the inner corner of her cheek and checked the message. A quick look told her that it was a location sent on the group chat. Should she really check? She should focus more on helping Eisuke but Izuku would never send a location if it did not mean anything.

 _Hosu._

The main city of the map was in Hosu and judging from the coordinates, it probably was not that far away from her location. Why would he send them those coordinates in the group chat if he was not in trouble? She chewed on her lips even harder when she saw he sent the message over twenty minutes ago.

"Are you coming Naruto?"

She shook her head and her cousin raised his eyebrows. There was no denying she wanted so badly to defeat the people that caused this destruction but her classmate needed her. He needed help because there was just no way he would send a location if it did not mean he was not in trouble.

"My friend is in trouble."

Eisuke blinked but made no comment. Instead he gestured for her to give him the phone. Naruto frowned but gave him the phone like he requested. Was he going to change his mind and go with her to help her friend? Or maybe her cousin had a better idea of helping Izuku if he saw the location. Her cousin bobbed his head and began typing a message before handing her phone.

"What are you doing with my phone?"

"Your friend is in trouble right? You don't know the city all that well so it will take you a long time to save his ass," Eisuke said. He tossed her phone before fixing his eyes at the burning buildings, where several of the heroes were rescuing the people. "I don't know if the heroes would read my messages or if they will get to him on time but Dad is quick and he is more efficient than some of the heroes in this country when it comes to defeating villains."

"Wouldn't he get into trouble? He doesn't have a license, does he?"

Eisuke shrugged his shoulders. "It hadn't stopped him before. He doesn't really give a crap about the law unless it suits him and his needs which is a good thing in your case, since he would help your friend. Now let us get to work and leave my Dad to help your friend."

 _But would he get there on time?_

Naruto really had doubts that her relative would be able to save her friends on time but if her cousin believed he could do it, then it probably would not hurt for her to trust in him. Family did that right? They trusted and relied on each other when they had problems.

Maybe just this once, she could rely on her mother's family.

* * *

"So you are the infamous Stain that has been attacking the heroes."

Izuku blinked his eyes and stared at the red-haired man standing in front of him, who seemed to have a tight grip on Stain's body. One minute he was about to get hurt by Stain and the next minute, a red whirlpool had smashed his fist against the man, sending him flying towards the wall. He glanced at Todoroki and then to Iida, hoping one of them knew who this man was.

The man looked like he was in his early thirties since there seemed to be very little wrinkles around his eyes, but there was something about him that made Izuku think he was probably older than his age. Those hazel eyes looked ancient, Izuku thought as the man nipped his thumb. Blood oozed out of his thumb and dropped at the strange mark on his right arm. Suddenly a bunch of weapons along with a couple of ropes as well as a tiny book dropped onto the ground.

"Who are you?" Todoroki asked; his bicoloured eyes stared at the man with suspicion. "And how do you know where we were?"

The man did not answer Todoroki's question immediately. Instead he picked up the rope and wrapped it around Stain, who was still knocked out from the man's punch. The speed in which the man tied up the criminal spoke volumes about his experience with fighting. Izuku frowned. A closer inspection on the man's face and he could make out a single scar running down his face.

"My son sent me a message from his intern's phone and told me that her classmate was in trouble," he answered. He twisted his head at them, where a large scar run from the top of his forehead down to his chin. His son? Izuku chewed on his bottom lip. So this guy was the father of one of the heroes? But his appearance made it seem like he was not old enough to have an adult son. "He sent me the coordinates and luckily for you, I was in the area."

"Who are you?"

"Does my name really matter? Uzumaki Kenji is my name," The man grumbled, slumping Stain over his shoulder. Uzumaki? Wasn't that Naruto's last name? Izuku stared at the man's bright red hair and his hazel eyes, noticing that the shape of his eyes did resemble his classmate's eyes. It was barely there but Izuku could see some resemblance between them.

"Are you related to Naruto?" Todoroki asked and Izuku could understand why his friend asked this question. His classmate admitted she never knew her family but there was a family member right there. If he was the father of a hero and his last name was Uzumaki then he had to be Uzushiokage's father. Uzushiokage had the last name Uzumaki. When he thought about it, it was stupid of him not to ask Naruto if she was certain that Uzushiokage was not her relative…not when they had the same last name.

The red-haired man stared at him for a good couple of seconds and nodded. "She is an Uzumaki, isn't she? She might not have inherited our signature red hair but she looks a lot like her mother. You just need to look at her to know she is an Uzumaki. Now that I answer your question, I have a question of my own. Who was the bright idiot that decided to charge here instead of following the other heroes? "

Iida flinched and admitted. "I did but sir, it is because he crippled my brother…"

The man rolled his eyes. "And you thought going after the criminal that crippled your brother, who is a professional in his job by the way, is a smart idea? Did you stop and think how your brother would feel if you had come back home in the same state or worse? Or how your parents would feel? Or were you so angry at the bastard that you forgot to think clearly. Do you honestly think being a cripple is the worst thing in the world? This isn't like the other part of the world, where there is a huge discrimination against cripples. He might not become a hero but he could find another job. At least he is alive! I know a good number of people who wish they could say the same for their family members! Now don't give me some sad sob story because I know stories a lot worse than yours."

The harshness in the man's voice made Izuku want to flinch. Most of the heroes and the people he knew would not use such harsh language but he was not doing that. How could he be the father of Uzushiokage? It was known to everyone in the hero's world that Uzushiokage was nice and kind. This man was acting cruel to their classmate.

"Sob story! I had to get revenge…"

"Revenge," The man let out a bitter laugh. "No matter where you are in the world, everything will lead back to that damn word. Tell me how would hurting this ass revenge your brother? Will it heal him? Or will it hurt your heroic brother to see that his brother is no better than the criminal who crippled him? And your parents. What the hell will they think when they learn you went after this madman instead of being a good student and doing your internship! You were supposed to be learning how to be a god damn hero and not to be some avenger!"

Iida flinched and Kenji just rubbed the sides of his head. Izuku waited for the man to scold them even more but instead he just looked at them with eyes that thought they were fools. Perhaps in his eyes they were. The scar on his face spoke volumes about his experiences in fights. Maybe they were reckless for fighting Stain but it was not wrong not to try and save their friend.

The man could scold them all he wanted but Izuku would never regret saving his friend.

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A/N: Please review and tell me what you think.


	27. Chapter 27

**A/N: I am glad to know that you guys have a nice impression of Kenji. I want to thank everyone who reviewed the last chapter and added this story to their favourites and follows**.

* * *

Uzumaki Kenji could only scowl as he stared at the three young teens walking in front of him. He survived a war and a genocide, only for him to become a glorified babysitter for a bunch of reckless teenagers for his son. If it was not for the fact they were Kushina's daughter friends then he would have allowed them to deal with this problem. If you went against orders then it was only fair you learnt the consequence that was his motto.

"U-Uzumaki-san…"

Kenji ignored the green haired boy. If the brat was going to act like a shy little kid then it was better to ignore him. Shyness and hesitance would get him killed if not in battle then in the real world. He looked down at his phone, where the coordinates that his son sent him to put the kids. Just another couple of hundred meters and those three teens would be out of his hands.

"Uzumaki-san."

He tore his eyes away from the phone and stared at the pretty boy with the bicolored hair. The tiny scowl on his face told Kenji that the brat did not like it when he ignored his friends' attempt of getting his attention. Too bad. He had no time for a bunch of inconsiderate brats, who did not take the time to be thankful for what they have. If he was their parents or mentor, he would have given them a beating of a lifetime for this idiocy.

"What?"

"What is your quirk?" The green-haired boy asked. His green eyes flashed with so much curiosity that it almost reminded Kenji of the lovesick brat that Kushina claimed to dislike. He had only been in Konoha for just a week to make sure his cousin settled down when the brat came to him and ask him about his knowledge of seals. That was the first and last time he interacted with his cousin's secret admirer.

"It is called I am very pissed with three reckless teens for disobeying protocol," he retorted. All three teens flinched at his words and maybe if he was anyone else, he would feel sorry for using such harsh words but he fought a war. He had seen what happened to the genin that did not follow the rules that asked them to survive.

The bicolored brat frowned. "Since you were the one that came save us, is Uzushiokage and Naruto in a middle of a fight?"

Kenji stared at the teen and then to his friends, who looked at him with wide eyes. The fear and concern for his relative was almost cute to see but it also annoyed him. Did they have so little faith in their classmate? Or on his son? Eisuke was a naïve child but he was not naïve enough to put the girl in danger.

"Uzushiokage decided it was better for Naruto and him to defeat those monsters instead of chasing after you three reckless fools since the other heroes are struggling to defeat those son of bitches," He replied; he flickered his eyes towards his phone. The boys flinched at his words. Good. It was not his duty to go and save their asses from some deranged civilian. It was supposed to be their job to realize the gap between them and the other heroes.

Did those kids think just because they were interns that they were invincible? They were just tiny birds who had barely spread their wings. They should have taken the time to observe, to learn their opponent before charging after him like a bunch of idiots.

He stopped walking when he caught sight of several heroes charging towards them. The look of worry told him that those heroes must have been in charge of the three foolish teens. Good. Now he had another person to rip apart because god damn it, his wife was going to yell at him for not checking in on her. The woman was always a worrywart even though he made it clear to her that he was more than capable of defeating villains.

"What the hell are you doing here, boy!"

Kenji smiled when an old man kicked the green-haired teen in the face. _It is the blue-haired boy that needs the kicking,_ he mused to himself as he dropped the Hero Killer to the ground. He was about to turn away to go back home, only to stop when he caught sight of his son and his niece standing behind the old man.

His son let out a sigh of relief while the girl locked her eyes on the blue-haired boy and the pretty boy beside him. Blue eyes seemed to be locked on the pretty boy and a tiny frown played on her lips. The way her eyes lingered on the bandages and the frown lines on her forehead told him about the care she had for the boy. The care she had for all her classmates.

Naruto shook her head and stared at him. There was no words spoken between them and there was just no need for words. Words did not need to be conveyed for him to know just how grateful she was for him; grateful for saving her reckless classmates from their own stupidity.

"Who are you?" One of the heroes asked, drawing everyone's attention to him.

Several eyes landed on him. They stared at him with suspicion, gazing at the scar which decorated his face. Some of the heroes stared at him with weariness while others flickered their eyes to him and then to the tied up deranged civilian that his son asked him to take care of.

He raised his eyebrow. "I am an outstanding law-obeying civilian that just saved three of your idiotic interns."

His son snorted at his words. The brat, he grumbled, glaring at his son who wisely decided to flinch at his gaze. Eisuke might be a hero in this part of the world and might be considered a strong fighter but Kenji could still run laps over his son. Maybe he needed to remind the boy about who was the stronger one here.

"You mean to tell me that a civilian just defeated Stain while we struggled for weeks to get him!" Another hero complained, narrowing his eyes at the tied up hero. Kenji bit his tongue from giving the young man a tongue lashing of a lifetime. As tempting as it was to put the hero in his place, he had better things to do than to hear some hero complain.

"Instead of complaining about how the fuck I defeated your deranged criminal, why don't you make sure that those three idiotic interns of yours are sent to the hospital!" He barked. The hero flinched at his words, looking almost put down about the lack of politeness. If you weren't a daimyo, a clan head or even a Kage then there was no point of him acting like some polite old man.

"Y-Yes."

"Young man…"

Kenji clenched his hands at the unintended insult by another hero while his son snickered at them. _They don't know that you are a man that is nearly forty-five,_ he reminded himself as the hero tried to ask him about the incident. The curse of being an Uzumaki was the fact he would age more slowly than the people outside his clan. It never really annoyed him until now. It amused him since his wife would complain about the unfairness of the world.

"Dad, can you just please tell them about what happened instead of sulking like a big baby!" His son called out. Every single one of those heroes blinked their eyes and looked at him before looking at his eldest son. The wide eyes told him that none of them could wrap their heads around the fact he was the father of a twenty-three year old. Must he grow a goatee just for them to realize he was that old?

He really should have just given those brats the coordinates and let them do their walk of shame.

"I punched him in the face before he could try and attack pretty boy over there—no quirk was used," Kenji said, jerking his finger at the bicoloured-haired boy. The teen blinked his eyes, looking almost confused at the nickname. Kushina's daughter swirled her head at the boy, blue eyes fixed on the boy. Those eyes seemed to show so much concern for this boy, almost reminding him of the days where Kushina would stare at him and his brother with those same emotions.

There was a softness in her eyes that Kushina never showed him or his brother.

"I am sorry for putting you through all this trouble," Iida said. Kenji stared at the young man, who had his eyes fixed on his friend's wounds and then at him. There was a huge temptation to tell him that now was not the good time to apologize, to yell at him for putting him through this mess but those tears was enough for him to hesitate. He had been a reckless teenager once. "You were right to call me an idiot."

A reckless teenager that got his comrade killed.

"You might be an idiot but you are an idiotic child that I can understand," Kenji said. He touched the scar on his face and stared at the daughter of his cousin, who stared at her classmates with such sympathetic eyes. "To see your big brother being injured in that way must have hurt you but it doesn't mean you can let out all your negative emotions in that way."

"Uzumaki-san…"

"If you cry again then I will knock you in the head," Kenji said. Almost all the heroes stared at him in horror while his son just pinched his nose. He glanced down at the unconscious man that he helped to capture. "Things like this is just part of your job. If you don't harden your heart now then you will never harden it. You just need to pick yourself up and start striving for a better future…you must never think revenge is the right path. Revenge is a self-destructive path that would only lead to heartbreak."

There had been so many times when he contemplated getting revenge for the fallen members of his clans. Times when he wondered if he had been foolish to come to this part of the world instead of ripping apart the villages that allowed the murder of so many innocent people. Perhaps if he had never met Kumiko then maybe he would have gone for a more destructive lifestyle.

Only a self-destructive fool would choose the life of an avenger instead of striving for a better future.

* * *

Shouto could only blink his eyes when he caught sight of Naruto sitting on the table beside his bed, lips hung open and bits of saliva dropping from her mouth. He knew his friend insisted she would stay in the hospital but he presumed her relatives would try to take her home so she could rest. She did spend the whole night defeating the Nomu but instead of going to her relative's house to rest, she decided to stay by their sides.

He glanced at his friends, noticing that the class president and Midoriya was still fast asleep. It made sense when he thought about it. Out of the three of them, he had been the one with the least amount of injuries. They must be still exhausted from the fight and the walk Naruto's uncle made them do.

"That's my ramen! No one steals my ramen." Naruto muttered and Shouto felt his lips twitched upwards. From the moment he met his friend, she always seemed to be eating the same kind of food. Every time they ate in the canteen, the girl would order miso ramen and eat it like it was her last meal. He used to think it was the only meal she could afford but the more he got to know her, the more he understood that she just had an unhealthy obsession with the meal.

He flickered his eyes towards the bedside table, where there was a tiny note addressed to him and the other s. Shouto knitted his eyebrows together and picked up the note. The Uzushiokage was not impressed with their behavior. It was not because they tried to fight Stain but it was of how they made Naruto worry.

"Shouto?" Naruto mumbled, eyelashes fluttering slowly open. Shouto shrugged his shoulder and crumbled the note. While it might make his friend happy to know that her cousin cared, he was also certain she was going to be angry that her cousin wrote the letter describing her feelings.

He nodded and watched as his friend stared at him. Blue eyes shone with concern as they drank up the bandages wrapped around his arms. The girl must have been so busy with her worries that she never took the time to see the extent of damage he and the others sustained.

"I am here," He whispered. He would have made his voice louder but it would be very rude to wake up the others with their conversation. Out of everyone here, those two needed their rest. Shouto knew he was lucky that Uzushiokage's father saved him or else his injuries would be in an even worse conditions.

Naruto rubbed the back of her neck and stared at their other classmates. "I know this is a bad way to start the day but considering that there is no heroes and relatives here, I think I can start giving you a piece of my mind. What the hell were the three of you thinking? I understood Iida wanted revenge but he shouldn't have tried to take Stain on. Izuku and you shouldn't have tried to take him on by yourselves! Did you guys stop and think what would happen?"

"I couldn't exactly leave Midoriya and Iida alone," he pointed out. His friend chewed on her bottom lip. "You knew the moment Midoriya sends a location that something is wrong. I didn't think there was enough time to explain to Endeavour on what was happening."

Naruto clenched her hands. "Do you know how worried I was when I saw that Uzushiokage's father came with Stain? I wanted to throttle the three of you but Eisuke stopped me. He told me that this was not the time for me to show my anger towards the three of you."

"Naruto…"

"I should have known that Iida was going to do this," Naruto whispered. She run her hand through her blond hair and stared at the sleeping boy. There were so many emotions running through his classmate's eyes but the one emotion, which stood out to him was the remorse in them. "I knew the damn fool was hurting from the crippling of his brother but I never thought it was this bad. I always thought he would be fine since his brother was alive, his parents are here to help him through it…"

 _Naruto isn't just angry with us because we are injured, she is also angry with herself._ Shouto stared at his furious classmate, who kept on talking about how she should have known. What did he do in this kind of situation? Comforting words would not mean a thing. In his life, he came to realize that actions spoke volumes instead of words.

"….The bastard was right when he said I don't know a damn thing about the bonds of a family." Naruto whispered; her voice was filled with so much grief and tiredness that he felt guilty for putting his friend through this worry. He hesitated, flickered his eyes to their surroundings and remembered what his mother used to do whenever he felt upset. "Maybe if I knew what it was like to have a family then I would see the signs."

He took a deep breath and slowly patted her back. It felt awkward to do this. He never had to comfort someone before, not when Endeavour disapproved of these kind of things. The man used to get furious with his mother whenever she comforted him after those brutal trainings.

"It is not your fault. It is no one's fault that this happened. Knowing the bonds of a family would never prepare you for something like this. Look at Midoriya, he has a loving mother but he didn't recognize the signs," Todoroki pointed out. He kept his eyes locked on the emotional eyes of his friend, who seemed so ready to blame herself. He did not want to see grief in those eyes, not when he finally knew what her eyes looked like when they were filled with happiness. "I have three siblings and I did not stop to think about his pain since I never tried to imagine what it will be like if my siblings were crippled. Bonds mean that you have an inkling on what his pain might be…but it does not mean you can recognize the signs. No one can."

His classmates stared at him with such wide eyes that he wondered if his choice of words were wrong. He did not know how else he could tell her that it was not her fault. There was no other action he could do which convey her this. All he could do was talk to her, try to give her examples just so she did not blame herself for their classmate's actions.

This was no one's fault.

"I think this is the first time that you talked this much," Naruto whispered; her lips were curled into a smile. It would be foolish for Shouto to think his words convinced her, but maybe his words would be enough for her to see that it was okay not to blame herself. He did not know why she liked to blame herself but he knew it was not healthy for her. It was not healthy for anyone.

Naruto and Midoriya made him realize that.

"I think something like this needs to have a lot of words," he admitted. "The heroes didn't blame you for what happened, they blame us for being reckless fools for chasing after Stain without backup. They blame Iida for charging in there without thinking but no one blames you for what happened. You might not have been there since Uzushiokage needed you, but you told him. You made the best decision at the time."

She shook her head. "I took a gamble with Uzushiokage's father. I didn't know for certain that the old man was going to find you guys on time. In the back of my mind, I wondered if I made the right choice of not going straight to Midoriya. Uzushiokage might be my long lost cousin but it doesn't mean I know him all that well. Many people will call me stupid for taking the risk."

"It is foolish," Shouto agreed and the blonde slumped her shoulders. He frowned. "It is foolish to trust someone that you have very little knowledge, but it is also wrong not to give them a chance to prove themselves. There must have been a reason why you decided to take the risk because you would never put anyone in danger. You care too much to do something like that. You got yourself recklessly injured during USJ because you care."

Time seemed to past as his classmate gazed at him with those wide blue eyes. It seemed like she was looking at him for the first time as if his words surprised her. Was he supposed to say something else? Should he have used another example? Or was there another way for him to tell her that she was not wrong to take the risk?

"Thank you."

He did not need Naruto to explain those words to him because Shouto understood her hidden words.

If anyone should be grateful then it should be him.

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 **A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter, especially with the conversation between Todoroki and Naruto.**


	28. Chapter 28

A/N: I want to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows.

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"Uzushiokage, what are you doing here?"

The sight of her cousin standing in front of the door, a solemn look playing on his lips while his father stared at her friends with unimpressed looks on his face. For the last couple of hours, Naruto got the impression nothing would impress the old veteran. The way the man looked at his own kid made her think that Eisuke must have struggled to get his recognition.

"I want to have a talk with you and since you refused to come to my sister-in-law's house to sleep over, I came here," Kenji said; his hazel eyes boring into her blue eyes. She rubbed the back of her neck while Izuku and Iida stared at her with surprise. Only Shouto did not seem surprised by the revelation then again he had been the only one awake. "And Eisuke want to talk to your classmates about their actions."

Naruto raised her eyebrow at her cousin, who nodded. It seemed like that it was not enough for his father to scold her classmates but he needed to scold them too. Although she wonder why he had to scold them since his father did a good job of scolding them.

"Really?"

"Well not just me," her cousin admitted. He glanced around the room before admitting to them. "Manual and some old hero as well as the police officer wants to have a talk with the three of you. Dad might have scolded you like the old war veteran that he is, but he is not exactly an officer or a person that enforces the law."

"Not to them," Kenji said; his tone was laced with annoyance. It must be annoying not to hold the same amount of respect in this country like he did in his village, Naruto thought, staring at the red-haired man that scowled at her classmates. Jounins, Chunins and maybe even the genins were respected in their village. They helped to enforce the law at times since they were soldiers for the village. This was not the case here. The ranks they carried in their village did not mean a thing here.

Her classmates stared at him with confusion but did not try to question him. The fear in their eyes told Naruto that they did not have the courage to question her uncle about what he did. She could not blame them. From the moment he brought them to the heroes till they reach the hospital, all he did was scold them for being reckless.

"Before the other heroes come, I want to thank you for having the courage to try and take down Stain," her cousin said, drawing everyone's attention to him. Eisuke kept his head straight, not flinching one bit when his father glared at him. He stared at the three boys. "What you did was reckless, I can never deny it but you did save a hero. What the three of you did was something any real hero would be proud of…although Iida-san, please don't ever think charging after a murderer is a good idea."

"You shouldn't even think of praising them for their stupidity," her uncle muttered under his breath. "They were damn lucky this time."

Naruto nodded and stared at her friends, wondering not for the first time about what would have happened if Kenji had never gotten to them on time. They might have died in some alleyway if it was not for him. The injuries that they sustained would have been even worse. She felt her throat dried up as she recalled all the ways she imagined them getting hurt. Shouto was not wrong to say it was not her fault but she could not help but imagine what would have happened to them.

The thought made her want to hurl.

She blinked her eyes when she felt Shouto poking her sides. Her friend stared at her with so much concern that the blonde felt her heart tightened at the expression. It still surprised her whenever someone looked at her with concern. Until she came to this part of the world, she could count the number of people with her fingers and toes. Now she could not even count the number of people that cared for her.

Her classmates, her friends and even her employer cared about her.

There was just no amount of words that could describe how grateful she was for them.

* * *

Kenji slipped his hands into his pocket as his niece took in his sister-in-law's house. Those large blue eyes stared at the house with so much awe and fear that he wanted to curse the people who hurt a member of his clan. He did not need to be a genius to figure out about the treatment Kushina's daughter went through, the whisker marks on her cheek was enough for him to know. The moment he saw her on television, he knew what happened to his beloved sister-figure.

"Kumiko won't bite you," Kenji informed her as he took out the spare key from under the creepy garden gnome that his sister-in-law loved to buy. He might be a retired shinobi, who had seen a war and genocide, but there was no denying that those tiny humans were creepy little things.

His niece blinked her eyes. "I am not scared."

"And I am the Daimyo," he muttered under his breath. His niece grinned at his words and Kenji felt his breath hitched. For a brief moment, the image of his nine-year-old cousin appeared in his mind. He was no longer a fourty-five year old man, instead he was fifteen years old again and his cousin was begging him to teach him a new jutsu. He shook his head. Kushina was gone. The village was gone. All he had left was the remaining members of his clan, his children and Kushina's daughter. These people needed him to look forward to the future.

He ducked his head under the door and made his way to the living room, where he could hear yesterday's report playing through. In the corner of his eye, he could see the hesitance in his niece's eyes as if she was not certain if she was welcome into the living room. It was silly for the brat to question him, to question his hospitality. If he did not want her here then he would have taken her to some restaurant to eat, telling her that he didn't accept her.

"We are home."

His wife swirled her head around and stared at him with those green eyes, he loved so dearly. She had a tiny smile playing on her lips, telling him how happy she was to see him. Kumiko tilted her head and stared at the blond-haired girl, who seemed intent to look down at her feet.

"You're Uzumaki Naruto, aren't you?" His wife asked softly, standing up from her couch. She tucked a strand of her auburn hair against her ear before making her way towards his niece. Kumiko glanced at him, looking almost uncertain on how to approach his niece. She took a deep breath and gave her a friendly smile. "My name is Uzumaki Kumiko but you can call me Kumiko-obachan."

His niece blinked her eyes and stared at the two of them with confusion. He raised his eyebrow. What did his niece expect his wife to ask her? He flickered his eyes towards the television, where they described how Endeavour and his son had been the ones to rescue those three idiotic fools. They even put the no-good hero on the screen while his son insisted not to be shown, no doubt the boy felt guilty for not being the ones to save them.

"Obachan?"

"You are my husband's cousin, aren't you?" his wife asked, giving her a gentle smile. "And I hope to get to know you better since you are apart of our family."

Naruto looked at him with such hopeful eyes that Kenji debated whether he wanted to throttle the girl for being a fool or to hug her for looking so confused. Would he have rescued those three boys if they were not her friends? He would not have stopped his run if it was not for her. Any person that was precious to her was precious to him and their clan. She might not look like an Uzumaki but she had the blood of the Uzumaki flowing through her.

"Don't give me that look kiddo," Kenji said and the blonde stared at him with wide eyes. He chewed the inside of his cheek to stop himself from cursing at the village that ruined his niece. This was not how the child of Kushina should act. His cousin's child should have been filled with joy, should have been filled with so much love because that was what she deserved. "You are a member of my family, of my clan."

"But you don't know anything about me," she whispered. "You don't know about why I came here or anything. For all you know I might be a fake Uzumaki."

Kenji thinned his lips. "Your hair colour, eye colour and nose might have come from your father but the shape of your face and eyes is all Kushina. Those whisker marks tell me that you are her daughter. I don't need to do a DNA test even though my brother-in-law think I should do it."

"My whisker marks," the blonde whispered; she touched the whisker marks on her cheeks. The blonde stared at him in confusion and he wondered if the girl did not know about why her mother came to Konoha. Had no one told her the truth? He glanced at his wife, who stared at his cousin with so much concern. "What does that have to do with my mother?"

"Did no one tell you anything about Kushina? Didn't you ever wonder what cause your nine-year-old mother to come to Konoha instead of staying in our village?" He demanded.

The blonde hesitated as if she did not know whether to tell him the truth or not. He glanced at Kumiko, who stared at his niece with concern eyes. His wife knew from his stories that it was normal for shinobi villages to have orphans. This was just a part of life. It was not normal to hide their parents' origin from them, not when the parents were a part of them. He pinched his nose, wondering what the Hokage was thinking when he hid the truth from her.

His niece shook her head. "I didn't know anything about my parents until a few weeks ago. The Third Hokage refused to tell me anything about them since my father made a lot of enemies during the Third Shinobi War. Ero-Sennin only told me because he thought it would be a better idea for me to do my internship with Eisuke."

Kenji grimaced and stared at the young girl in front of him. Could he tell her of the heartbreaking decision his grandfather made for his cousin? How her mother did not know the truth until he brought her to that village? Even now he could still recall her teary eyes. His grandfather had no choice but to send Kushina. Out of all his granddaughters, only Kushina had the best handle on the chains.

He could keep it a secret about what his grandfather did but it was not right. What their grandfather did was not right, not when he knew Kushina had no one else but him. He should not have lied to his cousin to come to that village. She should have been given a choice. There had been no reason for them to send his cousin, not when they repaid them with betrayal.

His cousin's daughter did not deserve to keep her mother's past a secret, not when he knew Kushina would have babbled his secrets to his children without a care in the world.

"You might need to sit down," he informed the girl. Kenji glanced at his wife. "Kumiko, can you bring Naruto some tea? And I might need some rum."

Green eyes widened at his choice of drink. The concern in her eyes made him want to smile because she knew the only time he drank rum was on the anniversary of the destruction of his village. The auburn-haired woman stood her ground, folded her arms and shook her head. He arched his eyebrow, allowing himself to show the desperation in him. There was no way he could talk about one of the worst days of his life without drinking rum.

His cousin was nine-years-old when she tore away from the only home she knew, to become a jinchuuriki for a village that was not even her own.

"I really need it Kumiko," he pleaded. "This isn't some happy story for me to tell her. My grandfather wronged my cousin by sending her to a village that doesn't give a shit about us."

His wife flickered her eyes at him and then to Naruto. "I told you that drinking doesn't solve a thing. Drinking will not help ease whatever guilt you feel, Kenji. I don't know what happened to Kushina but I doubt she would want to see you drink like a fool. Now start talking while I bring Naruto some green tea."

"But…"

Before he could say another word, Kumiko just went to the kitchen. He could only curse at his misfortune. Why would he think his wife would be willing to let him drink his problems away? As much as he wanted to be the tough guy, he could never really win against his wife. Not when she glared at him and gave him a look that spoke volumes of how disappointed she was with him.

It was the disappointed look that always stopped him.

"How did my great-grandfather wrong my mother?" Naruto asked; her blue eyes shone with so much curiosity that Kenji was reminded of Kushina. His cousin had the same glint whenever she wanted to know more about his missions. He took in a deep breath, trying to calm down his nerves.

It sucked to be sober.

"Do you know what a jinchuuriki is?"

The young girl stiffened but nodded her head. Good, he did not have to explain what a jinchuuriki was to her. This made his explanation a hundred times easier because god knew his children would have been confused about the term. He rubbed his chin and stared at the whisker marks decorated her cheeks. Was this the side-effect of carrying a baby when you were a jinchuuriki? His grandfather claimed there was no side effects although his grandfather spoke without thinking.

He always did.

"My mother was a jinchuuriki." His niece whispered. She looked down at her stomach as if it held all the answers in the world. The relief in her eyes made him wonder why the girl was not angry. Wasn't she angry? Everyone knew what the life of a jinchuuriki meant. The people of this part of the world did not know but the shinobi villages knew. They knew the amount of abuse those people went through and not once did they give a shit about them. "She was the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki."

"Yes," he answered and wishing not for the first time that he was drinking alcohol. "My grandfather chose your mother to become the second jinchuuriki for Konoha. His oldest sister knew that there was not much time before she was going to pass away and so they needed to have a replacement."

"And my mother was the replacement."

He nodded. "Grandfather thought very carefully about which of his granddaughters to send to Konoha. He chose Kushina because she possessed a very powerful and special form of chakra, but the bastard never told her why he sent her to Konoha. He just told her that she was chosen for an exchange, to take care of his dying sister since her own granddaughter was busy fighting in a war to take care of her. He made up so many bullshit excuses, not having the damn courage to tell her that she was going to become a jinchuuriki."

Naruto did not say anything. There was just pure silence between them as the girl processed what he had to say. She just looked at her stomach and closed her eyes, looking almost as if she was communicating with someone. Kenji just stared at her, waiting for some reaction. He would not mind if the girl yelled at them, to curse them for giving her mother a terrible road.

He swore at his grandfather even till the day he died.

"Great-grandfather did not have a choice, just like my father did not have a choice," Naruto said; her blue eyes shining with so much understanding that Kenji wanted to yell at her. He blinked at her words. _My father did not have a choice…_ Kenji stared at the girl. He knew Kushina was dead, knew by the fact that her daughter was here instead of Konoha. He did not know who would have been the next jinchuuriki.

He never stopped to think that Naruto would be the jinchuuriki.

"You are the jinchuuriki."

His niece nodded and stared at him with eyes filled with fear and hope. What did she fear? Did she fear he would not accept her because of the beast inside of her? He was not like that. He knew better than to do that. She might carry the beast but the girl was not the demon. She was just the scroll that contained the kunai, not the kunai itself.

Damn Kumiko was right not to give him alcohol.

"Your father sealed the Kyuubi inside of you," he stated as his wife brought them a cup of tea. Kumiko blinked and twisted her head, knitting her eyebrows at them in confusion. Kenji shook his head. He would explain the whole thing to her in private, where his niece would not have to see him curse her idiotic father for doing this to her. "Where is your shitty old man? What happened to your mother?"

"I presumed she died giving birth to me," she whispered. "And Dad sacrificed his life by sealing the Kyuubi inside of me."

The man must have used a very powerful seal, Kenji mused to himself as he took a sip of his green tea. There were only a limited number of seals which would need the sacrifice of a life. What was the fool thinking? When the man decided to impregnate his cousin, did he not stop to think of another seal where he did not have to sacrifice his life? A child would always need family.

The man should have stopped to think about what his daughter needed.

"What caused you to take the biggest risk of your life?" He asked and his niece blinked her eyes. Kenji rubbed the sides of his head as his mind came up of several scanerios for what caused his niece to come here. "No village would allow their jinchuuriki to run away. They would rather tear the beast away from you and kill you then let you roam free."

His niece hesitated and admitted. "The civilian council wanted to exile me for not doing my job properly. My mission was to resuce my teammate from Orochimaru but no matter how many times I yelled at Sasuke, no matter how many times I tried to talk to him…he just wouldn't listen. So I thought well if he was not going to come home the easy way then I will literally knock some sense into him."

The pain and guilt in Naruto's voice told him about how her actions tore her apart. His wife stared at the young girl with so much concern and for the first time in their marriage, he was not going to tell her that she was too soft. It was obvious from her tone, from those sad eyes that she was suffering from the guilt of not bring him back home. He was tempted to go to Konoha and yell at them, to tell them that they were fools to treat the girl in this way.

A jinchuuriki was still human and they also have their own breaking point. They should never think that the girl was some lapdog that would be happy to go back to them once she learnt her emotions.

"I nearly died trying to bring Sasuke back home," Naruto choked out. "All they cared about was the fact I failed to bring him back. I spent most of my life trying so hard to get their attention, to get the same amount of care and love that they gave him. Instead of saying that it is okay, that there is a next time, they want me exiled. I just came to realize what is the point of staying there? My other teammate wished I did not come back. The villagers and nurses cursed me for not being strong enough to bring him back home."

Kumiko wrapped her arms around Naruto, humming and rubbing the girl's back as she spilled everything to him. Kenji just watched as the girl admitted how lonely she felt, how she used to blame herself for not noticing her friend's pain from the lost of family. He could only watch his niece as she admitted the reason of her becoming a kunoichi.

Love.

All his niece wanted was love and attention from the people that should have given her. As a strategist, Kenji would have told the villagers that it was a smarter idea to give her love. The best kind of weapon was the happy weapon, not a weapon that could break down at any moment. As a father and uncle, he was furious for the treatment the girl was in. This was not how a person should be treated.

He could not show his anger, not when the girl still had scars from her home.

"You should never give a shit about what those people have to say about you," Kenji said; he kept his tone firm as his wife continued to try and sooth the girl. "If they think you are weak for not bringing back some emo kid that thinks revenge is better than a love of a friend then tell them to walk a mile in your shoe. You don't owe them anything. They don't deserve those tears. They don't deserve the guilt because you did the best that you could do at the time."

"Kenji…"

"Uncle," he corrected her and the girl blinked her eyes. "We are family and family don't call each other by their first names. If you want to cry then go ahead and cry but starting tomorrow, you are going to come and live with me and my family."

"W-What?"

"I am not letting you live by yourself," he said firmly. "We are not going to leave you alone to suffer again. If it wasn't for the fact that I don't want any attention on our clan then I would have stormed into Konoha and punch every single council members. Do they think they can treat you like shit because we were not there to protect you? Now we know that you are here and if they even think of fucking with you, they will go through the Uzumaki Clan. No one hurts a member of my clan and get away with it."

He would never let them forget about their crimes, not the crimes against his niece and definitely not the crimes against his fallen village.

* * *

"All of you can guess why you have been called," Tsunade said. She stared at all the people that claimed to call Naruto their friends along with Kakashi. The man insisted that he would go with them, saying it was his duty to bring the girl back home to them. She should ask for more jounin to go with them because this mission was not going to be easy. It would be the more logical plan but she was not going to let the girl think she was being hunted down. It was bad enough the council was furious at the lack of insight that the girl was in Japan instead of the neighboring countries like proposed.

Three years ago, they wanted to exile the girl but now they wanted her back.

"You want us to go to Japan and bring Naruto back," Hinata said; her lilac eyes showed no emotions. The other members of Konoha Nine nodded their heads although Tsunade noticed there were dark rings under her apprentice eyes. Had she been overworking again? Or was there another reason for the lack of sleep?

Tsunade took a sip of her sake and stared at the young chunins. "There is only one way to go to Japan from our part of the world and that is through a train," she informed them as Shizune handed the teens a sip of paper with information for their mission. "It sounds easy but there is a problem when it comes to that train."

"A problem? What is the problem?" Sakura asked; her tone was filled with confusion. "It is just a train."

She shook her head. "The location of the train changes every two weeks. One week, it might be in a location near Konoha and two weeks later, it might be in the Land of Lightening. When it reaches to Japan, you would not know where exactly it will put you. I presume Naruto had help in locating the train before we could find her since it would be impossible for her to find it by herself."

As soon as Jiraiya came back, she was going to throttle the man for keeping it a secret from her.

"So not only do we have to try and convince Naruto to come back home with us but we also have to find a phantom train," Shikamaru said; his brown eyes were locked on the map given to them. "The troublesome girl likes to make our lives hard. There is no telling if she will even want to come back here."

"Of course Naruto wants to come back home," Sakura yelled. "Her dream is to become Hokage and she can't become Hokage if she stays there."

As much as Tsunade wanted to believe in her student's words, she had to agree with the Nara. The girl was living in a place, where no one knew that she carried the Kyuubi. She would not have to suffer the harsh words of the villagers, not when no one knew the truth. It would make sense if the girl refused to come home. Not even Naruto would want to come back to a place that only abused her.

If Tsunade was not the Hokage, she would let the girl do as she pleased.

However she had no choice but to bring Naruto back home. The village needed their jinchuuriki now more than ever, since all the hidden villages knew about their blunder. This was the villagers' fault for not taking the time to think about which shinobi was more important to them.

She just prayed that they did not have to take Naruto by force

* * *

A/N: Please review and tell me what you think


	29. Chapter 29

A/N: This is a rewritten version of the chapter. I want to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows as well as everyone that reviewed.

* * *

"You are moving out."

The soft spoken words of Jiraiya stopped her from putting the picture of Team Seven into her moving box. The white haired man had his eyes fixed on the scattered moving boxes, which were not just filled with her souvenirs from her years in this country but of her stuff from Konoha. He glanced at the photo in her hands, raising his eyebrows at her and staring at her like she needed explain her sudden move to him.

She chewed on her bottom lip, wondering if it was a good idea to tell him of the offer Kenji gave her. It was not really an offer since Kenji made it clear to her that he was not going to take no as an answer. For someone who just met her, the old man made it clear to her about how much he did not want her to suffer. He knew all the right words to make her want to come and go live with him and his family. The offer of acceptance and love was just too tempting for her not to go and grab it.

"You were right about Uzushiokage being my mother's relative," Naruto admitted. She traced the photo of her team, drinking in the smiles that she, Sakura and even the tiny scowl that Sasuke had. Had they really been that happy? Or was it all just a dream? She shook her head and placed the photo into the box. She glanced at Ero-Sennin, who did not make any comment about her words. "I met his Dad and he told me that he won't let me live by myself. I should have refused because I can take care of myself but…I always wonder what it will be like to have a family that will stick by my side no matter what."

The silence between them made her feel nervous. Was he going to tell her to not do it? Was he going to ask her to stay here with him? A quick glance into her godfather's eyes told her that he was not going to beg her to stay here with him. The guilt that shone through his eyes told her about how much he did not want to take away her chance of getting to know her family, not again.

Her heart tightened as a sense of sorrow flooded over her. She was not sad for leaving her godfather because Naruto would always take the time to visit him and there was no one else that was more worthy of being her teacher than him. Her sorrow came from the fact she made him feel guilty with her fury. She had been so angry with him for choosing his spy network over raising her and how he never thought of telling her the truth about her parents.

The anger inside of her had faded and it was all due to Kenji.

Kenji made her realize that Jiraiya took the biggest risk of his life by sending her here. If Granny Tsunade found out Ero-Sennin was the one who hid her whereabouts then she was going to kill him for hiding her whereabouts from him.

"Thank you."

Jiraiya blinked and knitted his eyebrows together, looking almost tempted to ask her about why she was thanking him. The confusion in those black eyes made Naruto realize how much of a coward she was when it came to her godfather. It was easy for her to celebrate her Sports Festival victory with him and it was not that difficult for her to cry about all the things that were probably not her fault. She could argue with him about how she could pay for her own haircut but she could never bring herself to say those words. She could never admit just how grateful she was for him.

All she had been doing was focusing on the negative and this was not her way.

"I never said I was grateful for everything that you have done," Naruto admitted; she rubbed the back of her neck. "Yes, you lied to me about why you agreed to train me and I am still a little bit upset that you left me alone for so many years but I am grateful. If you never found the train that took me to Japan then maybe I would have done something more stupid. I would have done something stupid because I blame myself for not bringing Sasuke back to Konoha."

She did not blame herself anymore for what happened with Sasuke. She tried her hardest to bring her best friend back home. She said all the words that she could, hoping that it would remind him that Team Seven was their family. She should never blame herself for nearly dying since Sasuke was the one that used the chidori. It was not her fault for taking the bait because her friend knew damn well about how far she was willing to go for him. It was not her fault he chose Orochimaru but it was her fault for giving up on him.

She knew better now.

Naruto was going to bring him back to Konoha, back to Sakura because this was her duty as his best friend and teammate.

It was her job as a hero to save him because Sasuke needed to be saved from his own stupidity.

"When I fought Sasuke, I was not strong enough to overcome his anger or the curse mark," she admitted. "There is no other way to look at it but it was not my fault that he became this way. I realize that now. Until a couple of weeks ago, I thought so many horrible things about myself. I allowed my grief and hurt to consume me to the point I was willing to close myself off from people because I was scared. I was scared to get close to people because I thought they will just betray me but I was wrong."

' _It is no one's fault that this happened.'_

Those words from Shouto were the words that she should have heard in the hospital. It might sound stupid but his words were enough for her to start thinking about the events leading to that day. There was just no way she would have known about what was going through Sasuke's mind. He might have been her brother in everything but blood. He might have been the first person to acknowledge her but Sasuke did not open up to her. She knew about what Itachi did because of the rumors, not because he told her. He did not tell her that he wanted to kill Itachi but she figure it out.

He never really opened up to her.

If Sasuke never opened up to her then how the hell was she supposed to know?

"I want you to be happy because that is my duty to you as your godfather," Jiraiya admitted. "I suck being your godfather and I think if your parents were here then they would try to kill me…your mother more than your father. When you made no answer to me or even to your friend Hinata, I knew something was wrong. The words you said to me that day told me that I screwed up with you. I always thought you didn't need me even though the Third tried to convince me otherwise. I did a terrible job of showing it but…"

"You never did a terrible job of showing me that you care," she smiled at her godfather. The memories of their trip around the Elemental Countries flooded into her mind and she recalled all the silly things that the man did to try and make her smile. "You sent me here, didn't you? You taught me my father's jutsu and you tried to make me smile after what happened with Sasuke. I knew you care for me and I am sorry for not showing my appreciation enough."

He might not have raised her. He might have chosen the spy network over her when she was a child, but Jiraiya chose her in the end. He chose her happiness by sending her here. If it was not for this man then she would never have made friends with so many wonderful people. She would have never met Kenji or Eisuke. Momo, Jirou and Itsuka were quickly becoming one of her closest friends in this town. Especially Itsuka. The girl was never put off by her distant behavior, always having a smile on her face as she greeted her in the morning.

If it was not for Jiraiya then maybe Naruto would have never met Shouto.

Out of all her friends in her high school, she was the closest to him. He knew exactly what she was feeling and instead of ignoring her feelings, he just reassured her that it was not her fault. It was the first time that someone her age did not blame her. The concern in those eyes told her that he did not want her to blame herself.

She did not need to do anything to get his recognition and for that Naruto was grateful.

"You never need to tell me that you are thankful, Naruto." He smiled. "Just watching you interact with your classmates were all I needed to know that I made the best decision for you."

If it was not for the fact Uncle Kenji was going to come and pick her stuff up, Naruto would have teared up at those words. She really was the biggest fool in the world not to realize that the man truly did care about her. He might have missed a huge chunk of her life but he was here now.

That was all that mattered to her.

* * *

Of all the people that Kushina had to choose as her daughter's guardian, she had to choose the biggest pervert in the world, Kenji grumbled to himself as he stared at the Toad Sage. Why him? Did she just think about strength when he asked this guy to watch over her daughter? Because that was the only explanation he had for why the man was chosen to be the guardian of a girl. There was no way his cousin would allow a pervert to have the potential to raise her daughter, not when the guy would be too busy oogling girls than taking care of Naruto.

"You never mentioned that your godfather was the Toad Sage," Kenji said to his niece as she put her last box into his car. The guilty look on her face told him that she never thought about telling him about who she had been staying with. She probably did not think it was a big deal but he would always wonder if the man touched the girl. He did not know the man like his niece or cousin but he heard so many rumors and stories about the man.

"You never asked his name," Naruto explained; she shrugged her shoulder. "Ero-Sennin isn't as bad as you think he is. He might be a huge pervert but he never touched me or anything if that is what you are worried about. If he did have that kind of tendency then I would tell him to go and find his own place to live and I will punch him in the nuts if he ever did something to me."

It only reassured him just a little bit that Naruto was not completely clueless on his weariness of her godfather. It was foolish of him to think his niece was like Akane or Kiko, who did not understand the way boys and men think. His niece might be a high school student but the girl was still a kunoichi. She was taught from a young age about the jobs that were expected of her.

"So are we going to go now?"

Kenji shook his head. "You are going to go sit in the car while I have a talk with the Toad Sage."

The tilted head of his niece and the way she folded her arms against her chest told him about how much she did not like the fact she was being left out of the conversation. He thinned his lips, narrowed his eyes and jerked his finger towards the car. She did not budge from her spot, just giving him a look that said he could talk in front of her. He shook his head and kept his eyes long enough for her to realize that he was not going to change his mind.

She scowled and did as he said.

"You are furious." Jiraiya said as soon as Naruto was inside his car. His dark eyes shone with a guilt that Kenji took no pleasure of seeing, not in the expense of his young niece. As much as he disliked the Elemental Countries, he did not really take great joy of seeing people in pain. This was probably where he and his son were similar but where his son just wanted to save everyone, Kenji had no problems with destroying anyone that hurt his family.

"Do you think I will be happy after knowing what Naruto went through?" Kenji asked; he kept his tone calm and even. There was no reason for him to show the man about his displeasure, not when he was the reason that he had his niece in this country. "Your job was to take care of her and make sure she has a happy childhood. It was your village's job to take care of her when her parents were buried in the ground. I am not saying this because she is your goddaughter or because she was a child. I am saying this because she has a huge burden placed on her shoulders."

He rubbed the sides of his head as he recalled the numerous stories of the previous jinchuuriki from the other villages. Most of these jinchuuriki became insane from the amount of hate they received from the villagers. There had been stories of some of these jinchuuriki murdering the civilians because they could not overcome the monster inside of them. Kushina had been lucky. His grandfather had been smart enough to make it clear to the village's elders that no one was supposed to know about why his cousin went to Konoha and what her role was.

"Do you know how lucky Konoha is?" Kenji asked Jiraiya. He stared at his niece and then to the older man beside him. "The girl did not crack from the amount of mental abuse that she went through. You know as well as I do that not even a grown shinobi could handle the shit she went through, because anyone else would have tried to murder the people that hurt them."

"I know," Jiraya said and the seriousness in the man's eyes told Kenji that the man did know their luck. The white-haired man took a deep breath. "Naruto is a lot stronger than most people give her credit for but you can't blame the villagers. Do you think it will be easy for us to go and tell every villager not to be angry with an innocent child? She contain the very thing that destroyed the village. To the villagers, she is a constant reminder of what they lost. She probably would have cracked if the Third did not visit her as often as he could. He was the one that ate with her and he made sure Naruto was taken care of."

Hazel eyes squinted at those words. Taken care of? What was that man's definition of taken care of? Because Kenji saw a girl desperate for love and attention. He saw a broken girl and there was no way in hell Kushina would accept this on her daughter. He would never accept this on his own kid so how could he accept this kind of speech on Naruto?

"Do you really expect me to believe this kind of bullshit? Naruto does not look like she had been well taken care of at all," Kenji said; he tried his hardest not to let his fury slip into his tone. He was not fifteen years old anymore. He was a grown man that could talk to someone like an adult. "The villagers might as well tell her that she should go and jump off a building with the amount of mental abuse she went through. If your Hokage wanted her well taken care then he should have put her in a loving family."

If Naruto was just an ordinary orphan then he probably would not make such a big deal about this. Then again if his niece was not the jinchuuriki then the villagers would not care about her. They would just simply ignore her or pity her but they would never try and give her grief. He gritted his teeth, clenched his hands into a fist and wished not for the first time that he could punch a wall without causing damage. No one deserved to be put through what the girl went through.

"There were two families that wanted to take Naruto in as their own but the Third refused to let them adopt her," Jiraiya informed him. Kenji unclenched his hands and raised his eyebrow at the man, who had a tiny frown playing on his lips. "Don't give me that expression. The Third cared for Naruto as his own grandchild and he would have given the girl to them if they were not a shinobi clan. If he had given her to the Uchiha then the power balance between the shinobi clan would be tipped in their favour and the same went for the Hyuga clan. He was not just worried about the balance of power but he was also worried that they might demand she married one of the heir of the Uchiha Clan."

Kenji grimaced and stared at his niece. If the Uchiha clan wanted her to marry their heir then he could understand the reasoning. He did not like the reasoning but he could understand what went through their heads. If Naruto married their heir and produce a child then their kid would be undoubtedly strong. There was also the consideration that the power would have been more to their favour, which would have given them some leverage against the village.

He could guess this was a similar reason for the Hyuga Clan.

"If he did not want to give her to the clans then I can understand but telling the villagers that she contained the Kyuubi, tell me the damn logic about that," he demanded. There was nothing in the world that could make him understand the man. "Did he not realize just how much suffering she will go through if they knew what she contained?"

Jiraiya grimaced. "He was only following Minato's wish. My student wanted them to see Naruto as a hero because she is the only thing that is preventing the Kyuubi from attacking the whole village."

 _How did Kushina marry an idiot?_ Kenji asked himself as the Toad Sannin waited for his reaction. Did his cousin not explain to her husband about the abuse a known jinchuuriki would go through? Did she know what her husband's plans were before he died? Because he refused to believe she would accept this on her daughter. Her husband was damn lucky he was dead because he would throttle the man for his naivety. Did the fool think everyone was like him? The man must have known from seeing the Second Shinobi War that humans were cruel creatures that had no problem with hurting innocent people.

The man should have thought long and hard about how he wanted Naruto to live.

"Minato was naïve and young," Kenji said. He closed his eyes and felt his whole body become tired as he realized just how old the man was when he made his decision. "He was probably not much older than my son Eisuke and no matter how many times you see bloodshed or hear stories, there is always a sense of naivety in young adults. For that I am willing to overlook his actions but the Third should have known better."

The red-haired man began to pace back and forth, speaking every word that was going through his mind. "He should have realized the psychology of people who lost members of their families. How many times did a shinobi get so much hate from another village because they murder their loved ones? He should have known better. So what Minato wanted her to be seen as a hero? People are not willing to look pass her whisker marks and see a lonely orphan. He should have known better. He should have known that not everyone understand seals like a seal master does."

Jiraiya did not say anything and there was nothing that the man could say to calm down his rage. A member of his family went through so much suffering because an old man thought it would be a better idea to follow his successor's thoughts. Either the man became soft or he did not love his niece as much as Jiraiya and Naruto claimed he did.

For his niece's sake, he hoped it was the first and not the latter.

* * *

"I can't believe it! Naruto is going to live with us!"

Naruto could only blink her eyes at the sight of a grinning red-haired girl rushing towards her and Kenji. There was something familiar about the girl. The voice sounded familiar and she wondered where she heard the voice. Blue eyes widened as she realized that this was the same girl, who stopped her on her way to school. Behind the red-haired girl was another red-haired girl, staring at her sister with annoyance. The difference between them must be about a year or two but it was clear even to her about which one was the more mature one.

"Akane, you should greet us instead acting like an excited fangirl," Kenji scolded his daughter. The girl just beamed at him, not looking one bit put off at the fury in his tone. He glanced at her as if he did not know how she would react to this strange behavior. It was strange to be admired by someone that was not Hinata or Konohamaru and his friends but Naruto did not hate it. It felt kind of nice to be admired for her strength.

"She defeated her opponents in less than a minute!" Akane explained. "Do you know how cool that is? If it isn't for the fact Kiko would tattle on me if I used my shadow clones then I would have gone to Nii-san's workplace to see her!"

Blood rushed to her cheeks at the compliment while her uncle just rubbed the sides of his head. Cool? Was she really that cool? Naruto flickered her eyes towards her other young cousin, who had her green eyes fixed on her. Curiosity shone through those green eyes along with another emotion that she could not make out. It seemed like there would be a lot of emotions that she was going to learn and discover in her stay in this house.

"You would get the same result if you focus on my training regime instead of just focusing on your studies," Kenji commented. The red-haired girl rubbed the back of her neck but did not try to deny his words. Naruto flickered her eyes to the youngest Uzumaki, who now stood beside them. For the last ten minutes, the girl made no comment. Instead she just kept looking at either her, her uncle or Akane as if she did not know what to say. "Brains can only take you so far, you need to focus on your strength if you want to save people."

"Didn't you also say that I shouldn't be an idiot?"

"Dad was talking about your diet," Kiko explained; her tone was soft and gentle as if she was explaining the reason to a young child. The girl might be ten-years-old but Naruto could see why Eisuke thought the girl was too gentle. If it had been anyone else, they would say those words with annoyance or frustration but the girl did not seem angry with her older sister. "You know Dad doesn't know how to express his worries without saying something mean."

"How is it stupid for me to do a diet and do training?" Akane muttered. "It isn't like I am focusing more on the diet than on my training."

Naruto chewed on her bottom lip. Would it be okay for her to give her input on this? Sakura used to get annoyed whenever she tried to explain to her about why she found the idea of diets stupid. If she was going to be fair with her teammate, she would admit that she never used the right words with her. She called Sakura an idiot, which got her teammate furious with her. Hinata always did tell her about how she needed to use more gentle words with her female teammate since not everyone was like her or Sasuke.

"Uncle Kenji probably doesn't want to see you get so easily tired out from his exercise because of the amount of weight that you are gong to lose," Naruto informed the girl. She felt her lips twitched as she recalled the complaints some of the Academy girls had when they were in school. How many times did Iruka-sensei got frustrated when he realized that the girls were dieting when they were training? Whenever Naruto walked passed the nursery, she would hear the nurse yelling at the girls because the amount of times they fainted. "You can bet your ass if you train a lot with a diet then you are going to faint and you might lose some muscle. Why do you want to lose weight? You are thin."

"She just wants to do a diet because her friends are doing it," Kiko informed her. Akane opened her mouth to protest but her younger sister raised her eyebrow at her. "Until three months ago, you had no problem with eating udon everyday but ever since your stupid friends made a comment about your body, you decided to go on a diet with them."

"Maybe I just realized how bad udon is for my health!" Akane snapped; she folded her arms against her chest. There was something eerily familiar with the way those two were arguing. Naruto tilted her head. Where had she heard a familiar argument? She run her hand through her hair, combing through her memories as she tried to recall where she heard the familiar argument.

"The world is going to end if that is the reason you gave up on your favourite food." Kiko said dryly.

The older girl scowled and argued about how her sister was being unfair to her. Blue eyes could only watch in amusement and confusion as the girls argued about the choices made. Was this how sisters acted? Or was this between them? Hinata and her younger sister never argued like this. Hanabi seemed to respect her sister enough to make such comments about her choices in life. Although if she was being fair on her friend and her sister, the age gap between them was larger than a year.

"Why did Kami give me daughters? I was happier having one fool." Kenji muttered but despite the harshness of his words, Naruto could hear the love and joy that her uncle had for his daughters.

She hoped that one day she would understand this kind of family love between them.

* * *

 **(A few days later)**

The classroom was filled with the usual chatter that came before the homeroom started. The volume was louder and liveliar than usual but Naruto did not mind the loudness. It was simply the result of everyone returning with stories and tales of their internship as well as the laughter of Bakugou's haircut. She placed her head on her hands, listening to the stories told by the various groups. Her lips twitched at the sight of the fierce aura emitting from Ochako, who seemed content in talking to Tsuyu, Jirou and Ashidou about her internship.

"You seem exhausted," Shouto commented, taking his usual seat beside her. Naruto chewed the inner corner of her cheek from smiling at the concern which shone in his eyes. "Did Uzushiokage make you do a lot of work even in your last day of internship?"

Naruto shook her head, glanced around the room before leaning closer to her friend. It might be true that everyone was busy talking about their internships but she did not want anyone to overhear what she was going to tell him. If anyone should know about her good news then it should be him. Shouto was not just her closest friend in the class but he had shown her that he did care about her in his own way. It might seem strange but she wanted him to be the first person to know about her happiness especially since he was one of the few people that knew about her relationship with Uzushiokage.

"He has been nothing but nice to me," Naruto whispered; she felt her lips tugged upwards as she recalled all the things her cousin had done for her. "His Dad offered me to go and live with him so I decided to take a chance and go live with them. The good news I am living with a family but the bad news is that I need to find a new way to get to school on time."

Shouto blinked his eyes at her news, made no comment about her new living arrangement. He just simply locked his eyes on her and for some strange reason Naruto felt the strange urge to play with her hair and to blush. It really felt strange for him to stare at her like this but she did not hate it. It felt nice especially when she saw those emotions playing in his eyes.

"They care about you so I am not surprised that he offered you the chance to go and live with him," Shouto said, tearing his eyes away from her. He glanced out at the window before looking back at her. The concern shining through his eyes told her that her friend was still concern about her. "Are you happy?"

Naruto knitted her eyebrows and stared at her friend, who looked curious about the answer to his question. When was the last time someone asked her if she was happy? She could not remember the last time someone asked her about her happiness. She tilted her head and mulled over his question. Was she happy? Uncle Kenji told her stories about her mother, grandparents and their clan. He made sure that she knew how important sealing was to their clan and asked her about her days.

Akane always seemed happy to see her and asked her for tips on how to get into U.A High. The girl also had a bad habit of digging into her personal life, asking her questions about the boys in her school. Kiko just asked her for help with her homework or asked her questions about her village. Aunt Kumiko was nice. She took her out to do some shopping since she was not pleased with the amount of orange clothes that she had in her closet. Her aunt did not make her wear anything she did not feel comfortable wearing, always bringing her clothes that she just felt comfortable with.

It was nice.

"I am happy," Naruto whispered, closing her eyes and flashing him a tiny smile. "I have never been this happy before, Shouto."

Her friends' eyes softened at her words and Naruto was startled by how soft they looked. Had they always been this soft? Or was this a recent development? It must be recent because until recently, his eyes were filled with so much anger and hatred. Those eyes were now filled with a gentleness that almost made her heart flutter like a butterfly. She blinked. What the hell was happening to her? This was not her normal thoughts.

She bet it was because Shouto's eyes were now prettier.

"Hey Shouto, do you remember how you said that I look better with a smile on my face? I think you look nicer when you show the world that you are gentle," Naruto said softly. She tucked a strand of her blond hair against her ear and flashed him a smile, hoping it would be enough for her to convey just how sincere she was to him. "You look more at peace when you aren't angry with yourself."

His eyes widened at her words and the blonde wondered if her words meant anything. Did he want to hear those words? Or should she have kept it to herself? She probably should have kept it to herself but Shouto made her feel better about herself. It might not be intentional but it matter. She just wanted him to feel better about himself and for him to know that she cared about him too.

"Because you and Midoriya made me realize that I was wrong to be angry with myself."

The emotion flashing through her friend's eyes were not emotions that Naruto could pick up on. All she knew was that when Shouto looked at her like that, she felt a strange urge to rub the back of her neck and blush like one of Sasuke's fangirls. It was normal to be embarrass when a friend made such comments right? He knew it was normal for any good friend to yell at his father for hurting him the way he did. He should not make her feel special because any person would have done what she did.

Maybe it was silly of her to think that maybe she was special to Shouto.

"It is our job," Naruto said, chewing on her bottom lip. "Friends should save their friends from acting like absolute idiots, shouldn't they?"

The slight upward tug of Shouto's cheek told Naruto that he found joy in her words. The crinkle in his eyes told her that he found her words to be amusing and that he would not deny the fact he was an idiot for denying a part of himself. That crinkle in his eyes was something she wanted to see more. To be honest, she wanted her friend to be happy. She wanted him to experience the joy that he and the rest of their classmates helped her feel. She would do everything in her power to make sure those eyes of his would never see pain because Shouto deserved to be happy.

He deserved to be happy and Naruto had the perfect idea on ways to make her friend happy.

"Arcade!"

Shouto blinked his eyes and the blonde felt herself flushed red as she realized how stupid she sounded without an explanation. She glanced around, making sure that none of her classmates would overhear. Momo and Jirou were not the problem; they would just simply tag along or tell them to have fun. The same went with their other classmates, who would have no problem with joining them in their adventures. Mina was a whole different story. Her classmate seemed to think she had a crush on Shouto, which was silly.

Naruto knew from observing her classmates in the Academy that she did not have a crush.

It was perfectly normal for a girl to worry for her friend and to blush when her friend complimented her.

"Naruto?"

"I have never been to the arcade before," Naruto admitted with a tiny smile playing on her lips. "I never had the time to go to one but my boss isn't going to make me come to work until tomorrow so I thought it would be a perfect idea if we go to the arcade and play some games. They also look kind of fun and well I heard from one of my middle school classmates that you can win a cute prize in the arcade," she flushed red as she realized what those words sounded like. "Not that I want to win one or that I expect someone to win one. I mean I don't really like cute things, well except maybe…"

Why was she babbling like an idiot again? There was no reason for her to let her mouth act like a motor again. She wanted to go to the arcade with Shouto as his friend. Arcades were fun and they seemed childlike. From her understanding from overhearing his conversation with his father, her friend never had the chance to have fun. It was not wrong for her to try and bring some fun into her friend's life, right? So why was her mouth acting in control instead of her head.

"Ok"

The blonde blinked and blinked as she processed his words. She probably should keep her cool and act like it was no big deal, but the girl could not stop herself from pumping her fist into the air. This was probably the first time in her life that she was going to play some games without someone judging her.

It was going to be the first time that she could experience what kids in Japan do in their free time.

* * *

Uzumaki OC and their ages:

Eisuke: 23

Kenji: 45

Kumiko: 44

Kiko: 10

Akane: 12

* * *

A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter.


	30. Chapter 30

A/N: I want to thank everyone that reviewed the last chapter and added this story to their favourites and follows.

* * *

" _Friends should save their friends from acting like absolute idiots, shouldn't they?"_

He looked down at his smiling friend. Blond hair barely touched his shoulders and a warm smile playing on her lips as she tucked her arm around his. Joy twinkled in her blue eyes and he wondered if such a small act of going to the arcades with her was enough to make her happy. The slight crinkle of her lips made him think it was possible for such a simple activity did bring her a lot of joy.

"What are you thinking about?"

He blinked at the sight of curious blue eyes staring at him with concern. The slight crinkle of her forehead was a sign of her worry and concern, something he came to realize in the months of their friendship. Any moment from now and the girl was going to frown and repeat her question. In some ways Naruto was predictable but there were times when the girl could really surprise him.

"You."

Tan cheeks flushed red at his words and the way Naruto ducked her head told him about her embarrassment. It was becoming more and more of a habit for his friend to show such expression but Shouto liked it. The way she easily turned red made him wonder if there was another way for her to make these kind of expressions. They made her look almost innocent but his friend was not innocent.

"You know my quirk might be awesome but it doesn't let me read minds," Naruto said, lips curled into a large smile and Shouto felt his lips twitched at her words.

"I was thinking about how amazing you are," he admitted, watching his friend's reaction.

Blue eyes widened at his words and Shouto frowned at the gawking expression of his friend. He tilted his head, keeping his eyes fixed on the girl as he waited for her to finally take in what he just said. Finally a small smile played on her lips and the glint of joy shone through her eyes, hinting to him that she found his words to be nice.

"What makes me amazing?" She placed her index finger against her chin and tilted her head. "My grades in the mid semester test was good but you and Izuku did better than me. My quirk is pretty cool but what makes you think I am amazing?"

Shouto took in the brightness of her eyes, the slight crinkle of joy in her eyes and the way the wind seemed to be blowing against her hair. Many things came to his mind when he thought about her question. From the way she found the will to smile to the way she decided to search for a better future for herself. Naruto would be upset if she knew about his slight knowledge of her past and he did not want to see sadness creeping into her eyes again.

"You were willing to comfort me even though I hurt you with my words," he said, keeping his eyes fixed onto her blue eyes. He looked at the crowds of people, the smiles on their faces were warm and bright but they did not seem to convey the same warmth Naruto showed. "Not many people will do that."

A husky laugh escaped from the blonde. "You think you were cruel? My dear Shouto, I have heard more crueller stuff from people in my Elementary School and I always take it as a grain of salt," a tiny smile played on her lips. "Besides I know you were feeling upset with your shitty father so I didn't think much of it. I know that wasn't the real you because you care about people even if you have a hard time showing it to the world."

Shouto's eyes widened at her analysis and he paused, taking in the radiant smile on Naruto's face. Her closed eyes, small smile and the tiny wrinkle around her eyes startled him. There were so many words he could use to describe her but nothing seemed to come to his mind.

There was just no words to describe her.

"Thank you."

Naruto tightened her grip around his arm and shook her head. "I am only telling the truth, Shouto. You were always asking about my feelings and I realize now that you knew from the very beginning that I wasn't really all that well. You didn't know me all that well but you took the time to check about my feelings, not many people would do that."

"You reminded me of my mother," Shouto admitted and blue eyes shone with concern. "Endeavour wasn't the nicest husband and she always got hurt whenever she thought he took his training so hard. On the very first day of school, I realize that you were abused like her."

She bit her lips and stared at him. Blue eyes held him quietly in place and he wondered what was going through her mind. He could see the sadness in her eyes, the same crippling sadness that always seemed to loom over her. He frowned, putting his other hand on her head. "You can talk to me Naruto."

The blonde tilted her head slightly. "I am feeling like my old self so I guess we can talk about it…but after the arcade. I want us to have some fun before I spill my guts out to you."

Shouto blinked in surprise, words dying on his lips and she grinned. The cheeky smile played on her lips, telling him that she was being sincere about telling him about her pain. Blue eyes took in his appearance, eyes lingering on his bag. She curled her lips into a larger smile and before he could even blink his eyes, the blonde snatched his bag and started running away.

She turned half way through the street, eyes glinting with mischief. "If you want your bag back then you got to chase me, Shouto!"

For the first time in his life, he chased after her.

* * *

"Rematch! I want a rematch!"

Shouto tilted his head, eyebrows raised at her cry for another rematch. The people around them just giggled, shaking their heads at them but Naruto did not understand what was so funny. They played this game five times and not once had she managed to beat him. There was a time when she was close but it was not the same. God damn it, she hated to lose even if it was to her friend.

He tilted his head. "Do you really enjoy this game so much?"

"I just want to beat you," she pouted, folding her arms against her chest. "I really don't like to lose."

He raised his eyebrow at her, looking faintly amused at her words. He put another coin into the machine, rebooting the system again to where they could battle again. Naruto smiled widely, putting her own coin in, and cracked her fingers together. There was a fire in her that was telling her not to let herself get beaten by her friend.

She poked her tongue out, knitted her eyebrows together and pressed all the buttons in her disposal. There was no way she could be defeated again, not for a sixth time. It would be just embarrassing if she allowed something like this to defeat her. There was just no way that she would allow herself to be defeated by him.

"You must be cheating," Naruto declared when the words K.O appeared.

He tilted his head. "What would I gain from cheating?"

 _He does know that I don't really mean it, doesn't he?_

Naruto stared at her friend, who just tilted his head at her and looked genuinely confused at her words. She shook her head, her eyes darting to the numerous games at offer. Crowds of people seemed to be swarming around on most of the games but there was one that picked her interest.

The claw machine.

' _It is so hard to get a prize from the claw machine.'_

She felt her lips curled into a smile and dragged Shouto to the claw machine, pushing through the crowds of people that seemed to have their eyes fixed on the ridiculous couple in the dancing game. The way those people moved their bodies was not something she would want the world to see. If there was one game she would never do, it would be that game.

Naruto peered through the glass, eyeing the cute dolls in the window of the machine. Cute-looking mice, dogs, cats, frogs, and there was even a cute-looking fox that almost reminded her of the Kyuubi. _No toads._ She chewed on her inner cheek, eyes flickering from the frog to the fox that stood right in the front of the glass. Those black eyes seemed to be calling her, begging her to take it back home with her.

"You want to play this?" Todoroki knitted his eyebrows. "I never took you as a girl who like these kind of things."

She smiled. "I usually don't go for anything like this but I remember my classmate complaining about how difficult it is to get a prize from here. I just want to see how difficult it is and get a memento from here," she stared at the cute fox. "And the fox looks cute…it almost reminds me of someone I know."

 _ **I am not cute!**_ The blonde could imagine the fox was scowling at her and was probably thinking of many ways to make her life miserable if he ever got out of her.

 _Whatever you say, Kyuubi!_ Naruto poked her tongue out, placed her hands into the depths of pockets to dig out her coin. She slipped the coin into the machine, eyes beaming as the machine came to life. 30 seconds flashed on the display next to the joy stick. Knitting her eyebrows together, she placed her hands on the joystick and slowly began to move the claw.

 _There is going to be a trick to this._ She moved the claw to the top of the cute fox pressing against the display. Taking a deep breath, Naruto pressed the red button on top of the joystick. The claw barely touched the fox, barely nudged it from its spot and the blonde could only curse under her breath about her bad luck. _Twenty seconds._ She pressed the button again, praying to every god in the world that the claw would get the fox.

The claw nudged the fox but it did not grab it.

 _Ten seconds._

She pressed the button again and again, but each time the claw would grab nothing but air.

 _Beep._

"Damn it." Naruto slumped her shoulders and watched as the claw returned back to its original position. The black eyes of the fox almost seemed to be mocking her, telling her that she was a loser for even thinking that she could get a prize from the machine. She shook her head. She dug her hands against her pockets, only to find that there was nothing but air.

 _I really should not have spend most of my coins on that fighting game._

She scratched her chin, twisted her body and smiled at Shouto. Her friend stared at the machine, eyes locked on the fox that now laid only a quarter of an inch away from the display. The look of determination and curiosity was one Naruto did not imagine for him to have when it came to this kind of game.

"Let me have a try." Naruto shrugged her shoulder and slid away from the machine, letting the younger boy do as he requested. She tilted her head, eyes focused on Todoroki, who slipped a coin into the machine. _What is he planning to do? This thing is not as easy as it looks._ She would have had another go if it was not for the lack of coins in her disposal.

Her friend scrunched his eyebrows together, eyes targeted on the fox that she had been hoping to win. He shifted the joystick, moving it to the exact location to where the fox laid. It must be around ten seconds that Shouto finally decided to press the button, grabbing the fox from its position.

Naruto watched with a baited breath as her friend moved the fox towards the corner of the case. The claw hit the display window but thankfully the fox did not drop back to the pile. She sighed. Shouto grabbed control of the claw, moving the fox back to the opening of the case.

 _Nine seconds._

Shouto pressed the button, releasing the fox from the claw and into the opening of the case.

 _He did it._ Naruto poked her tongue against her cheek while her friend knelt down to grab his prize. She blinked when her friend held out his prize to her. She raised her eyebrows, tilted her head and just stared at him in confusion, wondering why he was holding out his prize to her. If she did not know Shouto as well as she did, she would have thought he was mocking her about her inability to win the fox.

But Shouto was not like that.

"Don't you want the fox?" He asked softly, lips curled into a frown.

 _He took the fox because I wanted it?_ Naruto bit her lips, uncertain on what to say to him. All she could feel was a lump in her throat forming as her friend looked at her with confusion. She tried to form the words but nothing seemed to be coming out of her mouth. It was like the words were stuck in her mouth, unwilling for them to be vomited out. For the first time in her life, she wanted her word vomit to appear.

"You took the fox because I wanted it," she choked out, curling her hands into a fist. Shouto nodded, his eyes locked on hers and there was nothing but confusion in his eyes. _He did it for me._ No one would have done what he have done. She could feel her throat clogging up even more as her mind tried to understand his actions, to make sense of them but nothing made sense.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because you look like you really wanted it," Shouto answered softly, handing her the plush fox.

Naruto stared at the plush toy, wishing for the words that could describe how much this means to her. No words could form because there was nothing that could describe how much it meant to her. She stared at her friend's eyes and without a second thought, she wrapped her arms around him.

This was all she could do to convey just how happy she was.

* * *

The café seemed to have less customers today.

Naruto hugged her plush fox tightly into her chest as Shouto and her took a seat in the café that she worked. Several of her fellow waitresses and waiters greeted her, their eyes widening at the sight of her and Shouto. They kept glancing at her, then to Shouto and then back to her, giving her strange looks as they did so.

She shrugged her shoulders and flipped open the menu, knitting her eyebrows together as she tried to figure out what to order. In all her time working in the café, Naruto never really tried the sweets or even the coffee. Work was something that always needed to be completed and the amount of shifts she took meant that she never had the time to come here on her off day.

Her boss was right when she said that she needed to take more days off.

"Asahi told me you are here with a boy but I just had to see it for myself." The familiar voice of her boss drew her attention away from the menu. Her middle-aged boss stood in front of them, her brown eyes staring at her and Shouto, who tilted his head at them. "You really did bring a boy here and not that middle-aged creep!"

Naruto just furrowed her eyebrows while her boss stared at Shouto before locking on the plush toy in her arms. The laugh and the teasing smile on her boss' face told the blonde everything. In the three years she worked with this woman, she came to realize that her boss made these kind of moves whenever a couple came together.

"Shouto and I are just friends."

Her boss raised her hands innocently. "I didn't say anything, Naru-chan."

 _I know how you think._ Naruto flickered her eyes at Shouto and then to the plush fox in her hands. Maybe it would have been a better idea to stuff it in her school bag and take out some of her books. It would make her words seem more plausible to her boss but how was she supposed to know her co-worker was going to tell her boss? She never told the woman when they brought their friends here.

"I will leave you to talk to your _friend,"_ her boss said; her tone hinted of amusement at the word 'friend'. The middle-aged woman locked her eyes on the toy, eyes softening at the sight and Naruto felt her temper rise when her boss gave her the thumbs up.

 _It was a bad idea to come here._

"Your boss is an interesting woman," Shouto commented, eyes locked on the middle-aged woman that was making her rounds to the customers. Naruto shrugged her shoulders, patting the fur on the fox as her mind swirled with explanations on their relationship. "She seems to care about you."

"I have been working with her since I was thirteen," Naruto explained. Her lips curled into a smile as she recalled her interview with the woman. "Most of the cafes I applied didn't accept me because I was either too young or because they were not hiring. Boss took one look at me and told me I was hired, no questions asked or anything."

"So you have been working with her ever since then."

Naruto nodded, her blue eyes fixed on the smiling faces of her boss and her co-workers. In the whole three years that she worked in this café, not once had she allowed the woman to see her happiness. The woman never made one comment about her emotions, always focusing and worrying on her lack of friends and her constant desire to work. Today must have been the first time that her boss could be certain that she was doing fine.

"She is one of the first people that welcomed me to this city," she admitted. Naruto locked her eyes at her friend and took a deep breath, willing to calm down the thousands of thoughts and emotions that was now running through her. "I was only thirteen when I run away from my village."

There was no way she could describe her action as moving away. She run away from Konoha and there was no other way to describe it. Moving away meant that she told everyone about her plans to go to another place. Moving away meant she faced her problems. What she did was nothing short of running away from her issues.

"Why?" Shouto asked.

The blonde smiled. "I guess I just want to run away from my problems. I could not handle the fact that I could not stop one of my best friends run away from home or deal with the hurtful words from the people of my village and my friend," she tilted her head. "Now that my mind is clear I realize that I can never fully forgive the people of my village. I think I can forgive my friend. She might have bullied me when we were younger but our relationship improved and I understood her to a certain point. She would have never said those hurtful words if Sasuke hadn't run away. She was just in a world of pain from losing the boy she loves."

"It does not mean she could hurt you," Shouto said and the seriousness in his eyes startled her. "And don't you think it is too young for you to say that your friend was in love with him."

Naruto chewed on her bottom lip and stared at Shouto. She would have agreed with her friend when she was younger but now with her mind cleared, she looked back in her memories and realized that not all of Sakura's feelings were superficial. Maybe in the beginning of the formation of their team, it was but at some point her teammate truly did come to love Sasuke.

The day Sasuke was at the hospital, Sakura never once left his side.

She saw the constant worry in those green eyes. She saw the way Sakura cared and worried for Sasuke and there was nothing about it that looked superficial. Her teammate was the one to realize something was up with her friend and for that Naruto knew that the love Sakura had was not superficial.

In a way, she saw hints that Sasuke was starting to reciprocate even if it was unintentional.

The blonde had seen them together and saw the way Sasuke complimented Sakura for her skills. For all her teammate's thoughts about Sasuke's feelings, Naruto knew her best friend better than they think. Her teammate might think Sasuke had feelings for her but not once did her friend complimented her about her skills. Looks yes but never her skill. Maybe once and only because he was pointing out the truth to their teammate.

"Naruto?"

"She was constantly worried about him," Naruto admitted, rubbing the plush fox. "And Sasuke did encourage her in his own and in his own way, he did try to build her confidence. You just need to look really deep to see it and I think she knew it…which is why she started to fall in love with him. She saw the ugly sides about our friend and instead of choosing to ignore them like I did, Sakura accepted them and tried to help him heal."

It felt weird to say those words out loud. Until three weeks ago, Naruto never took the time to analyse her teammate's feelings. She always thought like Shouto that Sakura was stupid to think she was in love with Sasuke but when she looked back at their memories, Naruto saw the signs of love. She remembered how Sakura fretted over Sasuke, how she tried to talk him out of doing the preliminaries of Chunin Exams and so many other things.

When she thought back to their Academy days and the way her eyes shone at the sight of Sasuke…their eyes were different.

"Most of the other girls in our school never tried to get to know Sasuke as a person or tried to help him with his problems," Naruto patted the fox. "I was too jealous of him to try and help him in that way but not Sakura. She might have asked him for dates and get rejected but she did try to get to know him as a person."

"No matter what her feelings were, it was never right for her to hurt you."

"I know."

She knew it was never right for Sakura to take out all her anger at her, to hurt her doing their trainings or outings but Naruto knew there were times when she did deserve the punch. Whenever she acted out of place and could not be reasoned then her teammate would do that. The way her teammate used the word 'idiot' when it came to her was once filled with scorn but somewhere along their many missions and the Chunin Exams, her teammate said those words with fondness.

Naruto did not know if she could ever fully forgive Sakura for the cruel words in the hospital but the blonde knew her teammate had allowed her hurt and anger to control her.

It was funny how she came to realize these things after seeing Shouto and her classmates in the hospital; after Shouto told her that it was not her fault for Iida's actions.

* * *

 **A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter.**


	31. Chapter 31

A/N: I want to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows.

* * *

A month ago, Naruto would do everything in her power to avoid going to therapy.

She had given Aizawa-sensei so many excuses on why she never made it to her therapy session. Work needed to be done or she needed to train for the Sports Festival. How could she go to therapy when she had an internship to go through? These were just one of the many excuses she had given to her teacher, who never once budged on his opinion that she needed therapy.

With her head fully cleared, she was willing to give this therapy thing a go.

(She was not saying this because Uncle Kenji gloated her into going into therapy, telling her that she was a coward for not trying to get help)

"My name is Hashimoto Yuna," the therapist said, a warm smile radiating from her lips. She gestured for Naruto to take a seat on the red chair across of her. "I know from Aizawa-san and the principal that you have been avoiding me."

Naruto could only smile sheepishly before taking slow steps to the chair, which seemed to look more terrifying each step that she took. She slid into the chair, adjusting herself until she felt comfortable in her seat.

"Tell me something about yourself." Yuna asked when Naruto finally found a position that she felt comfortable with. The woman had a gentle smile on her lips, her hands sliding a jar of cookies towards her and the blonde could only stare at the therapist.

The blonde frowned. "Aren't we going to talk about my issues?"

"Do you feel comfortable enough to tell me about all the issues inside of you?" Yuna asked. The soft tone in her voice spoke volumes on how much she was not going to push Naruto to talk about her problems or issues. She clasped her hands together. "I am not going to force you to tell me things that you are uncomfortable. If I ask a question and you feel uncomfortable to answer it then I won't push you. When I think you feel comfortable with me then I will ask you for your permission for us to look back at your memories."

"My memories?"

The woman nodded. "My quirk is called 'dream walker' and it allows me to travel through your dreams and memories as well as your thoughts. I think it is a good idea for you to face all those bad memories so that you can truly begin to heal…because you can't run away from your problems forever, Uzumaki-san."

' _I want to get better because I don't want to worry everyone.'_

Naruto bit her lips, eyes locking down on her feet. She shifted her legs together, hands folded across her legs before finally locking eyes on her therapist. Violet eyes, round and warm, stared at her with encouragement and concern that the blonde felt a lump being formed.

' _Tell me something about yourself.'_

"I like the colour orange to the point that it is not healthy," her lips twitched as she recalled the way everyone told her that it was a terrible idea to wear orange. "Everyone keeps making comments about how terrible the colour is when it comes to the eye…but I like the attention."

Yuna nodded. "Why do you like the attention if you don't mind me asking? Usually if a person likes orange, they are more energetic and they are more social but Aizawa told me that you are only now opening up to people."

Blue eyes widened at those words and a small smile played on her lips. _Even Aizawa-sensei notice the small changes._ She traced patterns on the table, recalling the bright orange fox plush that Shouto won for her and the cheerful greetings her classmates gave. Bright green eyes flashed through her eyes, the joy in them when she saw that she also got into U.A High.

' _Naru-chan suits you more.'_

"I never had any attention when I was a kid," Naruto clasped her hands together. "The adults would ignore me and treat me like I never existed but whenever I wore orange…they were forced to recognise me. I did a lot of things to get attention from picking fights with my best friend, skipping classes to even playing pranks on everyone. I even dumbed myself down because I wanted to be noticed. I wanted someone to believe in me and my talent."

Yuna scribbled down some notes, her violet eyes still locked onto Naruto's blue eyes as she did so. A tiny frown played on her lips. "Didn't you feel tired of being something you were not? Why did you continue the act for so long? Wasn't there a point where you felt like you could be yourself?"

 _Was I tired?_ Naruto chewed her lip and knitted her eyebrows together. She thought back to her academy days and her genin days. There had been times when she wanted to yell at her classmates or teammates for treating her like she was some idiot. They just took one glance at her actions in academy and her grades and presumed she was an absolute idiot.

She might not show her brains in the academy but she showed in her battles.

 _Did I ever felt like I can be myself around them?_ She could never tell Sakura that she never wanted to go to certain restaurants because of the cold eyes surrounding them. Naruto could never admit to her team that she wanted someone to show some care to her because it sounded like she was whinning about how unfair her life was. There was no way she could show them.

She showed that side to Hinata but her friend had her own issues to deal with, and Naruto never wanted to feel like a burden.

"I felt tired but everything I did was to find ways to get used to how the real world works," she took a deep breath. "What if I felt tired of dumbing myself down? I spent so much time playing the idiot that no one will believe the fact I am not stupid. I could never be myself because who is going to accept a broken lonely girl? No one will accept it."

"So are those the words that you will describe yourself? Broken and lonely?"

 _Broken? Yes but I don't know about lonely._ She thought back to the last couple of months in U.A High. So many faces appeared in her mind from Jirou and her love for music to Shouto and the way he cared. The jokes played by her coworkers and the light teasing her boss gave her whenever some boy asked for her to waiter her. She thought of her middle school teacher and how he refused to give in to her wishes.

She thought of Uncle Kenji, who took her in when anyone else would have abandoned her. Eisuke interned her because of her potential and saw the strength in her, but he was concern about her. He never made her feel like she was some idiotic rookie. Akane always seemed happy to see her, asking her about her school day, while Kiko greeted her with a gentle smile.

Loneliness meant she felt like no one cared.

"I am not lonely…not like in my old home and I know now if I did something stupid then a lot of people will scold me," Tanned skin smoothed the wrinkles in her shirt. "But I am broken."

Pale blond hair shook. "Broken? I don't see a broken girl."

Naruto blinked her eyes, stared at the woman and wondered what the woman was talking about. What could she describe her behaviour? Only broken people would try to throw their lives away. If it was not for her friends and teachers then she would have continued to be depressed. She would have continued pretending that she was fine. She would have tried her hardest not to let people in.

How in the world was she not broken?

"You seem surprise," Yuno said softly; a thoughtful smile played on her lips. "Do you know why you are not broken? You are a lot stronger than you think. You came this far in your life and you can continue to strive to be the person that you want to be, the person that _you_ are and not the person _people_ want you to be. You survived a situation where many people would have become villains, murders or even commit suicide. You are a fighter and a survivor, Naruto and don't think otherwise. Those are the two words that you should describe yourself…not broken. Never think that you are broken."

 _A survivor and a fighter._

Naruto liked the sound of those words.

* * *

"You know shinobi ignores the importance of mental health."

The husky voice of Uncle Kenji drew Naruto's attention away from the complex seal that he wanted her to draw. Green eyes stared at the wall, where the photo of a red-haired man stood, and then back to her. He glanced down at the seal that she was creating, eyes not revealing what he felt about her attempt.

"I thought we are learning about seals and not talk about my fragile mental health."

Kenji did not crack a smile at her words instead he traced the pattern of her seals. "You got some minor mistakes in the characters and the arrangement is messy. Your handwriting is still a mess. If you put your chakra then either you might cause this house to explode or you manage to convert the bottom of this floor to an escape way. Maybe we should increase your calligraphy classes."

 _He always makes comments about how crappy the seal is._ Naruto chewed on her bottom lip, trying to see the minor mistakes that the man spoke about. Right, she was not supposed to use the earth seal with the disappearance character in that order. The slight mistake in her writing could cause the characters to be confused with another. Damn it, the old man was right.

She took out a new piece of paper and began again.

"I am talking about in general," Kenji scratched the back of his neck. "If we have got problems in ourselves, we take a habit that is not very good for our health. We don't talk about it because we should know the hell we signed up for…but it is never right. If we lose someone we love or watch someone we love die right in front of us then they should get us help."

She missed a stroke at those words. The character of earth had been changed to warrior. The blonde scrunched the paper, put the brush down and stared at her uncle.

"I don't like talking about it because I never thought people cared about my mental health."

Her uncle snorted. "It is not just you kid, a lot of shinobi think like that. We spend more money on developing weapons or for more ways to make our soldiers efficient that we forget that shinobi are humans too."

"Because in the eyes of the village and country, we are nothing but weapons that can be discarded."

Kenji blinked his eyes at her words, green eyes staring at her like he was not certain on how he should feel about those words coming out of her mouth.

"A lot of people have that viewpoint," Kenji curled his lips in distaste. "I don't know about your time but in my time, a seven-year-old that passed the genin exams was old enough to go into the battle field. They don't try to gently eased the kid in or ask the kid if they know what they sign up for. They paint a picture that it is a great honour to go to war, to sacrifice your life but they never tell them about how ugly it is."

Naruto stared at the paper, not knowing how to tell him that he was wrong. She became a kunoichi for the fame, for the attention and for the honour but not once did she think about what she would go through. If it was not for the mission in the wave country then she would still continue to be ignorant about the life she chose for herself.

"I was diagnosed with depression and PTSD when I went to therapy," Kenji admitted; his lips curled into a tiny frown. "The therapist thinks it is because of the fact I went to war at the age of nine and from watching my parents being murdered right in front of me."

She blinked her eyes. "They made you go to therapy?"

"It was either I go to therapy or Kumiko will take Eisuke and divorce my sorry-ass," Kenji grimaced and stared at his hands. "When my home was destroyed and my parents murdered by some Kumo nin…I thought the best way to deal with my problem was to drink it away. I tried really hard to stay sober when I was dating Kumiko but I never lasted long. When Eisuke was born, it got even worse because I kept thinking about how my parents should have been there to see him."

There was no sadness in his voice or anger, only regret for his actions. Naruto could just stared at him, uncertain on how she should comfort him. The words 'I understand your pain' was not something she could say because she was not even old enough to miss her parents. The only person who could possibly understand her uncle was Sasuke and he chose a different path from her uncle.

She just glanced down at her hands. "Uncle Kenji, why didn't you decide on the path of revenge? You are angry with Konoha for what they did to your home and the way you say the name tells me that you have no problem watching the village burn to the ground."

"I don't hate Konoha," Kenji closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "I understand why you think I hate your birthplace but it is not the village I hate. It is the government that I feel angry with…and maybe most of the villagers, but that is more to do with the way they treated you. Konoha is just a place, it is not a person so it is stupid of me to hate a place."

The blonde gazed at those hazel eyes, seeing the honesty in them. He truly hated the government, the council for their actions but not the village. The people angered him because of their treatment towards her.

It was still strange to know someone cared this deeply for her.

"Why did you choose this life? Why did you not try and get revenge?"

Hazel eyes softened at those words. "Because what will I gain from my revenge? Maybe it will give me satisfaction and ease the pain that our clansmember felt but it will never bring back my parents or our fallen clans members. If I just killed one of them then what do I gain? Will I be happy? What will be my purpose of life? Because after I accomplish my revenge then I needed something else to fill or that is how I thought. These are all the things that I take into considerations before I decided to make roots here."

 _Purpose in life._ Naruto looked down at her characters, eyebrows scrunched together as she thought about her goals. She wanted to become the hero that would protect the people, to give them the life that she never got but once she accomplished her dream then what was next? She rubbed her chin, realizing that she never really thought that far ahead.

When she thought about it, she never thought that far ahead even when she wanted to become Hokage.

"What are you thinking about?"

"I never thought about what I want to achieve after I accomplish my dream," she laughed. "I spent most of my life screaming to the world that I am going to become Hokage or telling people that I am going to be a hero that I never thought what I would do after that."

Kenji ruffled her hair. "You are still young," he locked his eyes on her. "You got plenty of time to think about what you want to do after you accomplish your dreams. Right now, you need to focus on getting yourself better and mastering the seals because…"

"It is an ancient art that every Uzumaki and their descendants should know," she finished with a tiny smile playing on her lips. She locked her eyes on the paper and then looked at the red-haired man, who took out his own piece of paper.

Her uncle was right.

She needed to focus on her mental health because there was no way she could become a good hero, be a good friend if she could not overcome the pain in her past.

* * *

( **Next day)**

" _You're going to be doing a rescue-training race!"_

A _ll Might should have called it an obstacle race._ Naruto curled her lips, wind slapping her face and tugging her cheeks away. The long metal pipes intersected at various angles, testing both her flexibility and her agility with the amount of turns that she was forced to make. All Might's booming voice echoed in her ears, telling her that there was a victim that needed to be saved.

She twisted her head, lips curled into a grin at the sight of her fading classmates. The only person, who seemed to be in second place was Bakugou, and the blonde could see the irritation in his eyes. Twisting her lips into a smile, Naruto poked her tongue out and continued to charge through the course.

Her chakra was channelled to her legs, thrumming with life as she continued to overcome the obstacles ahead of her. There was no excuse for her not to do well, not when she had the most experience in the whole class. _You can never be a hero if you bottle your feelings up._ She wanted everyone to see the emotions coursing through her, for them to realize that she had changed.

' _I am no longer alone.'_

She could only look forward to the horizon that seemed to give her more hope about her future.

* * *

"I can't believe Midoriya to jump in like that," Mina complained, peeling her suit of her body. "It was like he was flying."

"He has improved," Naruto agreed, removing her kimono shirt. She tapped her chin, blue eyes closed as she recalled the difference in his movement. It seemed familiar to her, almost reminded her of someone's moves but for the life of hers the blonde could not figure out where she had seen it.

The girls' locker rooms were alive with their chatter, their lockers tugged open for them to change back to their school uniform. Naruto stared down at her kimono shirt, wondering if maybe it was time for her to change her outfit. She shook her head, folded her shirt and took off her sandles. _I still need to figure out the coding sequence for how to trap someone with a seal because Uncle Kenji won't start with the next step until I figure it out. I also need to go to Jiraiya and continue with my elemental chakra training before he goes off to check in with Tsunade._

"—totally happy! Right, Naru-chan?"

Naruto blinked, hands reached to her pants and she jerked her head at her smiling classmate. Momo and Jirou shook their heads, eyes twinkling with amusement about her distraction. The blonde pushed her pants down and tilted her head at her. "What are we talking about?"

"You look like you were over the moon," Jirou explained with a tiny smile. The blonde blinked at those words before cracking her lips into a large smile, allowing her canine teeth to be seen by them. They stared at her with wide eyes but made no comment.

"I don't think we have ever seen you that happy," Momo added, undoing her hair from the tight ponytail that she made. Naruto could only shrug her shoulders. "And I didn't know that you can be so flexible."

"My body type doesn't allow me to use pure strength," Naruto gestured to her body and her classmates tilted their heads, looking confused at her words. "I might be able to throw a punch that can destroy a whole building but I am not sturdy enough so to make up for it…I have to be quick and agile."

"Can you give us some tips on how to reach your level of speed?" Mina asked.

Naruto considered the request, blue eyes fixed on the smiling faces of her female classmates. None of them could ever hope to use chakra for just two reasons: they were older than five and they had no chakra to begin with. If they wanted to reach her level of speed or anywhere close to it then they would need to get old-fashion weights. Would they mind this? Or would they complain about it? "It is not going to be easy. You don't have my quirk but it is possible if you can get some old fashion weights that can be worn."

She blinked her eyes when she realized Momo had her eyes fixed on the scar located above her chest. Dark eyes flashed with concern, probably realizing that the scar could only be caused by lightening.

"I'm sorry for staring, Naru-chan," Momo said softly, tearing her eyes away from the scar. "I have always wanted to ask but how did you get that scar?"

"It is right above your heart," Ochako commented, eyebrows knitted together as she eyed the faint scar above her chest.

Naruto looked down at her scar, tracing the ragged pattern. "I got it from getting into a fight with my best friend. I don't remember exactly what lead us to use our quirks but well Sasuke got furious and used his quirk. I don't think he would have used his quirk if I didn't try to push him over the edge."

"It looks more than a tiny fight between friends, ribbit," Tsuyu comment and Naruto had the strangest sense that the girl knew the truth. "A friend would never do this."

"Sasuke wasn't acting like himself," she explained. "And I don't actually care about the scar. It shows that I am a lot stronger than I look and that I am tough as nails."

Hagakure waved her gloved fingers. "But don't you feel self-conscious about it? It almost ruins your beauty."

"Not really because scars are normal in my home village," Naruto shrugged her shoulders while her classmates just gawked at her. If she cared about her looks then she would never become strong. If there was one thing she wanted to be, it was to be strong. She wanted to be strong enough to protect her classmates, strong enough for the new family that she had but most of all she wanted to be strong for her clan.

She did not care about her looks.

 _The smile on Uzumaki's face makes her beautiful._ Naruto felt her lips curled into a smile as she slipped on her school uniform shirt. That had been the first time someone called her…

"—right?"

Naruto blinked, realizing the whole locker room had fallen silent. Her blue eyes glanced to the side of the locker room where the girls looked at her with expectation. She sighed. "You guys are asking me something."

"Are you okay?" Momo asked and Naruto shook her head.

"She is _distracted_ ," Mina said, eyes glinting with mischief as she slid closer to her. The girl curled her lips into a cheeky smile and the blonde could only feel a sense of dread. "You are in love! Who is the lucky boy that you were thinking about?"

Naruto felt her cheeks burned at the accusation while her female classmates grinned. There was an urge to deny the words but something was stopping her to say the words. All she could do was shake her head, turned her body away as she willed for her face to go back to its natural state. Finally, she choked. "Not in love!"

"Be honest, Naru-chan!" Mina squealed and wrapped her arms around her neck. "Everyone can see that you really like Todoroki. He is the only one that can make you blush like that and you are always looking at him when you think that no one will notice your action!"

"Because I am concern about him!"

Mina giggled. "Then why are you blushing as red as a tomato? He likes you too…"

Blue eyes widened at her accusation. She shook her head, staring down at her skirt. Her friend did not like her in the way they thought. It was only natural he was concern about her. Her face flushed red not because she liked Shouto but because of the words he said to her. She was just not used to having someone complimenting her smile or caring about her.

It was not because she was in love with him.

"He does not like me and I am not…"

"Don't finish that sentence," Jirou interrupted. She motioned with one ear jack to the wall. Everyone raised their eyebrows as the girl plugged her ear jack into the wall. "I think I hear someone talking…"

"—rozu's boobs, Ashido's figure, Hagakure's floating panties," Naruto felt her temper rise at the words that Jirou was telling them. "I wonder what size is Uzumaki's chest…"

 _I am going to murder that pervert, Jiraiya's successor for his series be damned._ She slipped her skirt upwards, clenched her hands into a fist and was about to charge to the male locker room only to be stopped by Jirou's other earjack. The girl held her finger up, earning a frown from all the girls around them.

"Todoroki seems to have frozen Mineta's feet and he is currently telling the pervert that he should never say something crude about Naruto," dark eyes glinted with amusement. "You are sure that Todoroki doesn't like you, Naru-chan? Because he only stopped Mineta when he made a comment about your chest."

Naruto could only blush at the comment while all the other girls shook their heads at her.

It was natural for friends to get pissed when someone made perverted comments.

* * *

Japan was everything and nothing like Itachi imagined. The people had technology that neither him nor Kisame had ever seen before. The people around them could either looked perfectly normal or looked strange, having animal characteristic or something equally strange. He glanced at Kisame, who flickered his eyes at the millions of people, probably taking note of what these people's Kekkai Genkai were.

"We found the train but the damn inspectors did not tell us where we are," Kisame grumbled as they made through the streets. The crowds of people kept glancing at them, their eyes lingering on the bandaged sword that the blue-skinned man insisted to carry out in the open. "How are we going to find that Kyuubi jinchuuriki if we have no damn clue where her damn school is?"

"We cannot attack her immediately," Itachi reminded. His dark eyes lingered at the smiling faces of the children, where an older boy seemed to be carrying a younger boy. He felt his heart clenched, remembering the days when he used to do the same thing for her. "We have no idea about the security of her school. If the technology here is this advanced then there is no telling how much security they have in the school. We cannot draw attention to ourselves."

"We can always kidnap her when she is alone," Kisame said as they stopped in front of the newsstand. Itachi curled his lips, picked up the newspaper and read the local headlines. There was no indicaton on where they were, no clue about where U.A High would be. "She would never expect it and it won't draw attention to us."

"We need to know where she is living for us to do that and her daily routine to accomplish this," Itachi stated. He flipped open the newspaper, skimming through the papers. _Uzushiokage and Endeavour._ He tilted his head. Uzushokage was a name associated with a shinobi but why would a shinobi be here? He scrunched his eyebrows together, taking the time to read through the article. Naruto Uzumaki was someone he could understand, the girl had been suffering since she was five.

It never completely surprised him that the girl would run away from the village, not with how the villagers treated her.

"Anything useful?" Kisame questioned.

"Apparently there is a hero called Uzushiokage," Itachi replied. He handed the paper to Kisame and glanced at the cashier, who looked at them in annoyance. Uzushiokage was the name of a leader of the Uzushiogakure's village if what he recalled from the stories that Aunt Kushina used to tell him along with the geography lessons in the Academy.

He always presumed that the Uzumaki clan was annihilated like the Uchiha clan but it seemed like he was wrong.

"The Uzushiokage has always been an Uzumaki," Kisame stated, eyes locked on the smiling image of the red-haired hero. He traced the markings of the hero. "He has the typical looks of an Uzumaki. He might be related to the Kyuubi jinchuuriki. Do you think the jinchuuriki contacted him?"

"It is coincidence that the hero chose a name associated with the Uzumaki clan." Itachi might say those words but he knew it was no coincidence. From the information gathering, not many people knew about the Elemental Countries. The government and its workers did but the common person would not know. The man did not look like he was old enough to have been alive for the destruction of the village, but he must be like Naruto. A child born to an Uzumaki parent.

 _It will not surprise me if Naruto contacted him._ Itachi had only guarded Naruto a few times during his time in the ANBU but he recalled how the girl constantly drew images of her parents. He watched her pray to Kami for some clue on who her parents were. It would never be a stretch to think that the girl made contact with the man, hoping that he might be a clue on who her parents were.

He knew it but he could not let Naruto be captured now.

As much as it pained him, Itachi needed the girl's help because only Naruto would be able to get his foolish brother back to Konoha. He never intended for his foolish brother to become so consumed for hatred but he knew his brother cared for Naruto,

Naruto was the most precious person to Sasuke.

* * *

A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter


	32. Chapter 32

A/N: I want to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows.

* * *

"Summer Break is coming soon but of course, it stands to reason that none of you will take the whole month off."

Half of the class stiffened, heads shooting up in rapt attention as Aizawa shuffled through several papers and settled them onto the podium.

Naruto curled her lips, tapping her pencil against the table and scribbled down the order of the characters for the latest seal Kenji taught her. She knew she should pay attention to the man but her relative wanted to test her skills today. _If you can improve the seal then we can go to the next step._ She closed her eyes, trying to picture the many ways to improve the seal he gave her.

It really did surprise her how much she enjoyed sealing.

"…are you doing?" Shouto asked, eyebrows knitted together at the sight of the jumbled up characters. "This doesn't look anything like we are learning."

"Uncle Kenji is teaching me new ways on how to use my quirk," Naruto explained, running her hand through her hair. She blew a strand of her hair, rubbed the sides of her head and gazed down at the characters in the paper. "He wants me to figure out another way to improve this. If I don't figure it out by today then I am going to be stuck in the same level."

Todoroki tilted his head. "What does a piece of paper with a bunch of kanji characters have to do with your quirk?"

Naruto tapped her chin with her mechanical pencil and erased the order of text. "There are a lot of things that I can do with my energy but there are also many things that I am incapable of doing with my seals. For example, I cannot put my pencil case into a piece of paper but with the right characters and the right order…I can do that. My clones look sturdy but one good punch in the gut and they pop. If I am able to put a seal in my clone then my clones might be able to last more…damn I need to quicken my pace."

"It sounds very useful."

She nodded her head and fixed her eyes at the seal, wondering if Kenji would not mind experimenting with her idea or if he knew of a seal that could do it. As much as Naruto adored her clone jutsu, she knew if her clones faced someone with a quirk like Bakugou then it would be impossible for it to last.

A familiar scarf zipped past Koda and slammed hard into Naruto's head, jerking her head upwards. She felt her lips twitched into a sheepish smile when she caught the annoyed eyes of her homeroom teacher, who was not impressed with her behavior. " _As I was saying,_ you would do well in paying attention. This summer we are going to have a training camp in a forest lodge."

 _Training? No one would know how to train me._ Naruto chewed on her bottom lip, pulled out her phone while her classmates erupted in cheers. Could she ask Jiraiya to push back his travel date? And convince her teachers to bring her godfather? As much as she liked her teachers, she knew none of them had the capabilities to deal with her abilities.

"Let's give each other dares!"

"The baths!"

"Fireworks!"

 _Fun. I am going to have fun with my friends._ Naruto tucked a strand of her hair and smiled. Many images flashed through her mind and there was a giddiness inside of her at the many activities her classmates were describing to her. This was probably going to be the first time in her life that she was going to be included in activities without being discriminated, without having someone tell her that she did not deserve to be there.

" _However,_ anyone who fails the upcoming final exams is in for a summer school of hell, right here in this school."

"Do your best guys!" Kirishima said fiercely, whipping around with a clenched fist. Naruto smiled, stared down at her seal paper, blue eyes lilting up as she finally realized what could be used to improve the seal. She scribbled down the character and stared at Aizawa-sensei who listed off several other requirements for their training camp.

"You seem very excited." Momo commented.

Naruto grinned and rubbed the back of her neck. "Ya because this is going to be the first time I took a school trip that is over the summer break. In Middle School, I always gave excuses on why I could never do it and the teachers understood my situation about my need to work part time. Now I don't have anymore reason not to do this."

"So this is going to be your first trip?" Kirishima asked, turning his seat to face them. Naruto nodded. "Well this summer training camp is going to be awesome! We are going to train in the manliest way possible and have a ton of fun too!"

The excitement in his voice made Naruto smile as her classmate sprouted all the ways they were going to have fun. Snacks and late night scary stories, those were all the things she never had the chance to do when she was in the Academy. In Middle School, work occupied her time but this was going to be the first time she would be able to enjoy something normal.

Oh right, she could not enjoy something normal until she told Aizawa-sensei about their situation.

* * *

Aizawa folded his arms and stared at his student, who had her hands playing with her skirt. Despite her fidgeting, blue eyes shone with so much confidence and happiness that he almost forgot the sad girl in the hospital. His student had come a long way from being that girl but she still had a long way to go before she could heal from her childhood trauma.

"You wanted to have a talk about the summer camp."

Naruto smoothed her skirt as she put her legs together. "Aizawa-sensei, you have no idea on how to train someone with chakra."

He curled his lips at her honest words. He flickered his eyes towards the files that the principal produced, detailing of the numerous ways in which Naruto could make better use of her powers. There were all theories, theories that they have no clue that could work. Until his student came, they had no other student that was capable of doing the things that she could do.

"You know someone that can train you and you wish for them to come with us," Aizawa summarized, slumping down in his seat.

She nodded, chewing on her bottom lip as if she did not know how to spit the words out. He sighed but made no attempt to push the girl to talk. If his student came to him with an idea on how they could train her then he was willing to listen to her as long as it made sense. His student might be a bit reckless but he doubted that she would have a terrible idea of improving her power.

"Yes," Naruto locked her blue eyes on him. "Ero-Sennin is the only one capable of training me when it comes to my chakra and he is one of the few people that I trust who can bring me to my full potential. He is also one of the few people in my village that cares for me and is willing to help me deal with the Kyuubi."

He thinned his lips and stared at the determined girl. "And why should I let a stranger come with us? You might trust him but I have no clue on what kind of man he is. If he cared for you as you claim then why did he allow you to live in a situation where you were abused? Give me another reason to let him come with us. How can I be certain that he will put the safety of you and the other students first?"

Blue eyes widened at his words, looking almost taken aback at his words. His student might have been a kunoichi but Aizawa was not going to let her think for just one minute that he would go along with her wishes. Even if they have no clue on how to train her quirk, they needed to be certain about the man's loyalty. It was not just her life that they were going to trust the man with but also the lives of so many other students.

"Because he took me away from Konoha when it would have been in the village's best interest to keep me there," Naruto said firmly. "He cares about me and he came here as soon as I told him that I needed him. He cares a great deal about people. When I was being a depressed little shit, he tried his hardest to make me laugh."

Aizawa kept quiet and waited for the girl to elaborate.

"He would never do anything to put the other students endangered," Naruto continued. "And he is stronger than All Might. If someone attacks the camp then you can bet that he will protect the students with his life and that he will be able to defeat them without any problem."

 _Stronger than All Might._ Aizawa stared at his student, who remained convinced by her words. All Might was strong, one of the strongest heroes in the world, and Naruto believed her mentor to be stronger than him. If he was a shinobi then the man must know a lot of techniques. He must have experience when it came to fighting, which could be an added bonus to the students.

However he was still not convinced about the man, not when he allowed a young girl to live for so long in a village that only disrespected her.

"I am still not convinced about the man," tired red eyes locked onto his student's bright blue eyes. "If you really want the man to come with us then he will need to be questioned by both the principal and I. This trip is not something that can be taken lightly, Uzumaki. After what happened in USJ, we need to keep the flow of information between us. For all we know Ero-Sennin," he pulled a face at the vulgar nickname, "Might not be able to keep his mouth shut."

She chewed on her bottom lip. "So you want to talk to Ero-Sennin?"

"We want to have a long talk with him about not just what he plans to do with you in the summer camp," blue eyes lit up with excitement. "But we also need to judge his character to determine if he is good enough for him to come. Security is going to be tight and we don't want any of the students harmed."

"You might need to keep him away from the baths."

Aizawa raised his eyebrow.

"Jiraiya gets his inspiration for his books from spying on the girls' baths," Naruto pulled a face. "He claims that watching the girls makes his writing better but his grammar is crap."

He could only rub the sides of his head. "I am afraid to ask but do I know his book series?"

"Icha-Icha."

 _The famous writer of that terrible series is a shinobi._ Aizawa could only rub the sides of his head as he imagined what the summer camp would be like for him. Not only would he have to keep Mineta in control but he would also have to be on constant guard for the perverted man. Why must his student have a perverted mentor? Maybe they could just get some advice from him and that was it.

He did not sign up to deal with two perverts.

"May I ask what made you decide to train with a pervert?" Blue eyes widened at the question and Aizawa just stared at his student, wondering her sanity. "Did you not stop to think he might take advantage of you at any point?"

"I thought Ero-Sennin was cool," his student shrugged her shoulders. "And he was strong. I needed someone to train me for my match during the Chunin Exam and at the time Ero-Sennin seemed to be the best option. He is one of the strongest ninjas in my village."

 _The girl is more similar to Bakugou than she wants to admit._ Aizawa could only blink his eyes at the girl's words while the blonde flushed red. This was something he would expect from Bakugou but not from Uzumaki. His student never made any indication she was that kind of person. There was just no clue that made him think she could be someone like that.

"Did he ever try to take advantage of you?"

"Ero-Sennin might be a super pervert but he is not that bad," Uzumak protested.

He better not because Aizawa was not sure how many perverts that he could deal with.

* * *

When Naruto told him to go and meet with her homeroom teacher and principal to talk about her training, Jiraiya did not expect to be greeted by a scruffy man, a humanoid animal or a muscular man that looked like the action figures on display in the game store. He expected to meet just two people, hopefully where he could argued Naruto's case because Kami knew there was still a lot of work to be done with his goddaughter.

He shook his head and fixed his eyes on the muscular man, who looked like he could be just around the same age as him. When Jiraiya took a better look on the man, he noticed there was a similarity between Minato and him. The hair colour was similar but that was where all similarities ended. The muscular man was taller and more muscular than Minato ever was.

If Jiraiya had never knew Minato's parents then he would have presumed the two men could be related.

The humanoid animal poured him a cup of tea, eyes locked on him as he gave him a friendly smile. Out of the three people staring at him, only the animal seemed to manage to hide his dislike and distrust from him.

"My name is Nezu and I am the principal," the humanoid animal took a sip of his tea. "The teacher on my right is Eraserhead and the other teacher on the left is All Might. I presume you know why we called this sudden meeting, don't you?"

Jiraiya nodded, eyes locked onto the humanoid animal before flickering his eyes at the teachers. They wanted to do a training camp for all of the students but they had no clue on how to train his goddaughter. For some strange reason Naruto decided he should be the one to continue her training, not Kushina's cousin. It was not like he was not happy with her decision, he was overjoyed but he wondered what went through her mind.

"Uzumaki thinks you are the only person capable of training her," Aizawa stared at him, his tired eyes revealing just how much he disliked his godchild's choice. "She believes we should trust you to the point that I can take you with me to the training camp along with the other students. Frankly, I do not trust her judgement."

Black eyes did not flinch at those words. He was not surprised about the distrust, how could they trust him to take care of Naruto when she trained? They must know of the fact he abandoned her in her childhood, letting her get hurt by the very people that Minato trusted to treat her well. It would make anyone feel like they were not worthy of trust.

"What Eraserhead is trying to say that we don't know if you have Uzumaki-san best interest at heart," Nezu explained. He took a sip of his tea, dark eyes glinting with so much intelligence that Jiraiya would not be surprised if the mouse had made several plans in his brain. "You were her teacher when she was in Konoha but Uzumaki-san never sought treatment about her problems until she came here. As her teacher, it was supposed to be your duty to figure out her problems and help her deal with them."

"It is not just my duty as her teacher but also her godfather," he admitted. Jiraiya grimaced as blank blue eyes flashed through his mind and the tiredness of his student's voice flooded in his mind. "I can train Naruto to deal with her chakra and she is one of the best students that I ever had but when it comes to dealing with emotions…I am absolute crap."

It took her battle with her teammate for Jiraiya to see just how messed up his godchild was. The sight of those blank blue eyes along with the grief in her voice told him about how much the girl had been suffering, how much she hid her pain from the world. He knew Minato and Kushina were disappointed in him for letting their daughter suffer so much.

"You did not take the time to consider that your fifteen-year-old goddaughter was dealing with trauma from the emotional abuse that the villagers gave her?" The scruffy teacher asked. His red eyes flashed with fury but it was gone as soon as Jiraiya noticed it. He rubbed the side of his head. "If you are her godfather then what were you thinking when you decided to leave a newborn alone?"

Jiraiya took a deep breath. "What I am about to say is no excuse for my actions and I have explained my reason to Naruto too. One reason is because I have a spy network that constantly needed to be check, which means that the road was never a safe place for a child to grow up in. Another reason is because I was her father's teacher and if I was suddenly to take his child then the dots would be connected and Naruto would have been endangered."

"Her father?" All Might questioned. "What does young Uzumaki's father have to do with anything?"

The white-haired man took a deep breath, willing his emotions to be held down. Even now after fifteen years, it was still painful to talk about Minato. The man had been more than just his student, he had also been like a son to him.

When Minato's parents died, it was Jiraiya that helped the boy.

"Naruto's father made a lot of enemies during the Third Shinobi War," he explained. "In Konoha, her father is considered a hero but in some parts of the Elemental Countries, he is considered to be a villain because of the amount of shinobi he killed. Naruto might have her mother's face shape and eye shape but she looks exactly like her father. Many people knew I trained him and if they saw I took an orphan who looked exactly like him then they would know immediately why."

"So you did it to protect the girl?" All Might asked, looking unconvinced at his words.

Jiraiya shook his head. "There were better ways in which I could have protected Naruto from the world around her but I fooled myself into thinking she never needed me. I could have come to the village and train her whenever I had a chance but the idea of seeing her used to bring me a lot of pain. You didn't know her parents but Naruto looks the perfect mix of her parents. The first time I met Naruto, I remembered all the things Minato and Kushina dreamt for her. They used to tell me stories on how they wanted to raise her and Minato used to scowl at any boy under the age of six, thinking that one of them would steal his baby girl away."

' _You are being silly!'_

Even now when he say those words, he could still recall the annoyance and amusement Kushina had whenever Minato glared at one of Mikoto's boys. If the man was here in this school then Jiraiya had no doubt that he would find someway to spy on his daughter, making sure she was not being mistreated by some boy and to threaten any boy who looked her way.

"I was lucky Naruto kept her sanity during those years in Konoha," he closed his eyes. "Naruto is not the only one with a monster inside of her."

Nezu raised his eyebrow. "So there are more people like Uzumaki? Were they also treated badly like her?"

"It is expected for them to be treated badly by the people around them," their eyes flashed with concern while the white-haired man took a sip of his tea, wishing it was sake. "Most of them crack under the cruelty of the people around them and become the monsters that the villagers think they are. Konoha was lucky Naruto never became like that but some villages were not as lucky. If Minato had not made the seal as strong as he did then she would have been influenced by the monster inside of her."

He thought of the newest Kazekage. Gaara was showing the other countries that despite his young age, he was a capable leader for his village. He might not have become Kazekage if it was not for Naruto, who defeated the boy. He probably would have never became the leader of his village if Jiraiya never went to Sunagakure to fix the seal.

"I have another question to ask," Eraserhead fixed his eyes on him. "Why would your leader place a demon inside a child? Was there not a better way to contain the demon?"

"If there was then Minato would have done it," their eyes widened at his words and Jiraiya grimaced. "Naruto told you that the Fourth Hokage sealed the monster inside of her but what she did not know until recently that her father was the Hokage. If I know Minato as well as I think I do then it was a very difficult decision for him because he knew there was a potential for her life to be difficult. I believe if he knew a better way to contain the demon without using Naruto then he would have done it, just to spare her from the pain. As a leader, he made the right decision but the end result…"

"The end result is that we have a fifteen-year-old girl that has years of mental abuse," Eraserhead said dryly. "While I can see the logic of his decision, there was no need for him to let the people know she contain the monster. Until just recently, Uzumaki believed her life held no meaning. She was willing to disregard her life if it meant she could protect everyone. She admitted to All Might that she never knew her name until she was five, what part of her father's plans made sense?"

"Minato was a genius but he was naïve," Jiraiya explained. "You have to understand, he had blind faith they would follow the wish of their Hokage. He never stopped to consider that there was a possibility they would hurt his child in the worse possible way."

Jiraiya knew Minato would have been disappointed in the way Naruto was treated by the villagers. He sacrificed his life for the village because how much he loved the people there and how it was his duty as their Hokage to protect them.

"Uzumaki-san claims that you can teach her in mastering her chakra, may I ask in what ways will she be trained?" Jiraiya blinked his eyes at Nezu's question but the animal paid no attention. The principal continued. "And are there any ways in which you can train the other students? Because you cannot just train Uzumaki-san in the training camp. The students must be treated equally just so that they do not think there is favouritism."

Tanned hands rubbed his chin as he mulled over the question. Most of the people of this part of the world did not have chakra, meaning any chakra exercises he gave them would be useless. However he saw them in the Sports Festival and while he believed their quirks were fantastic, the way they used them and the way they fought could be improved.

"I will help with their taijutsu," Jiraiya stared out at the window. "In the Sports Festival, I noticed that a few of the students avoided taijutsu even though their quirks would have been perfect for it. A few of the quirks are based on elements and I have affinity with quite a few of them so I can give them clues on how to be more creative."

"And Uzumaki? May we know what you believe she needs to improve on?"

"The brat has improved in her chakra control but she still needs to improve it," he shook his head. "If Naruto did not have so much chakra then she would not be wasting her energy so much. Naruto and I still need to work on her elemental chakra since we just figured out her affinity. From what Naruto told me, she has been learning seals but I cannot let her do her seal training by herself in the summer camp. Her taijutsu is good but it can be better."

"You have given it a lot of thought." All Might commented, looking as if he was not certain on how to feel with his words.

He nodded. "I already failed her as her godfather but I can make it up to her as her teacher."

"While it is good you realize your short-comings, you should also know that if you take one look at the _underaged_ girls in the baths then you are out," Eraserhead informed him. Jiraiya grimaced but nodded his head. He could just imagine them as being like Naruto, his sweet goddaughter that should never have any boys thinking about her with dirty thoughts.

He would not fail her.

* * *

A/N: Please review and tell me what you think.


	33. Chapter 33

**A/N: I want to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows as well as everyone that reviewed the last chapter.**

* * *

"Mind if I take a seat beside you, Naru-chan?"

Naruto cracked a grin and gestured for her friend to take the empty seat to the right of her, ignoring the surprised looks from Midoriya and the others. Itsuka grinned, slid into her seat and placed the tray of steak and orange juice in front of her.

She blinked her eyes when she realized the strange looks from her classmates. "Why are you guys looking at me like that?"

"We didn't know that you and Kendou-san were friends," Midoriya explained. Her friends nodded, their eyes still fixed on the orange-haired girl. "We always see you either sitting with Todoroki-kun or with Yaoyorozu and Jirou."

The blonde shrugged her shoulder. "That is because Itsuka-chan is busy being the class president and being the mediator in her class. If it was not for the fact we see each other before homeroom then I would never see her with the amount of work she does."

Itsuka wrinkled her nose at the reminder of her responsibility but the twinkle of joy in her green eyes spoke volumes of how much she loved her role. For all the complaints her friend made about the silliness of her classmates, she probably would not trade them for the world and knew she was the only person who could keep the most insane people in check.

"So do you think we can handle the subject test?" Ochako flickered her eyes at them, brown eyes shone with curiosity and worry about the exam that would take place in two weeks.

Midoriya tilted his head. "The content for the written test will be everything we have learnt in lessons so we have a good chance in passing the written paper if we just study hard."

Naruto slurped, eyebrows knitted together as her friends launched on the possible topics which would be tested in the written paper. Everything they had learnt in class was not that difficult as long as she found a video or a way to make the topic easy enough for her brain to understand. If the worse came to worse then she could always use her clones to study even if she felt like it showed she was slacking off on her education.

It would be her last resort if she did not understand anything from the notes she made.

"It is scary that we can't know what will be in the practical exam," Midoriya commented, drawing Naruto back to reality. Green eyes looked down at his food, moving his cutlet back and forth. "I have no idea what they can put in the practical test."

"Well he can either make us rescue someone," Naruto stirred the content of her ramen, eyes locked on her namesake. "Or we need to fight someone. There is not much he can test us on."

"I heard from a senior that the practical exam is going to be like the entrance exam," Itsuka informed, taking a sip of her orange juice. Midoriya, Ochako and Iida blinked. Shouto showed no expression but Naruto could tell from the slight crease in his forehead that he was also taken back at how her friend knew this. "So we will be battling against robots again."

Naruto tilted her head upwards. "If that is the case then the exam is going to be a piece of cake."

Just as soon as she finished saying those words, she felt someone bumped the back of her head. The blonde took several deep breaths, willing to calm down her anger, before swirling her head to look at the asshole who hit the back of her head. Hateful blue eyes stared down at her, looking at her like she was someone he wanted to crush.

"Monoma!" Itsuka yelled.

"It is my bad, Kendou," Monoma said but the lack of sincerity made it clear that the boy did not regret his actions. "Her head was so big I ended up whacking her."

Naruto clenched her hands into a fist while her friends narrowed their eyes at the boy. All of their eyes flashed with similar emotions telling her just how much they felt annoyed on her behalf. She rubbed the back of her head and forced herself to smile at the bastard, not willing to show him just how much he annoyed the crap out of her.

Itsuka opened her mouth to apologize but the whiskered girl shook her head.

"I heard a bunch of you encountered the hero killer," Monoma continued. The way his blue eyes flashed with maniac joy made Naruto want to shove her food at his face. "The way you guys have been basking in the spotlight have only seemed to increased ever since the Sports Festival hasn't it, class A? Only the attention you are grabbing is not out of expectation, it is coming in a form of trouble."

Naruto slammed her chopsticks to the ground, ignoring the surprised looks from her friends. The way he said those words was not something she could tolerate. She could handle when someone called _her_ attention-seeking. There was always going to be a part of her that would be attention seeking but there was no way she would accept this.

If there was one thing she could not accept, it was someone who insulted her whole class.

She grabbed him by the collar and raise him up to the air. The whole canteen turned silent as several heads turned at their directions. Their eyes flashed with curiosity, wonder and excitement at the sight in front of them. Dimly she could hear Iida telling her to put him down, saying how this was not heroic of her.

There was nothing heroic about what the ass was saying about them.

"I am going to make one thing clear you little shit," Several eyes widened at her use of swear words but Naruto ignored their looks. "I can ignore your shitty stunt but I won't let you insult my friends that way. Do you think it is funny to talk about the fact Iida and the rest got injured by the Hero Killer? You think it was for attention! Only someone who has no fucking heart will think like that."

"Uzumaki-san, you need to put him down."

Naruto ignored Iida's words. Her blue eyes as the boy struggled to escape from her gasp. "Let me make one thing clear to you, Crazy Eyes! Insult my classmates again and I will tear you from limb to limb, you understand?"

The boy gulped and nodded vigorously. His blue eyes flashed with so much fear and for a brief moment she wondered if the boy was going to piss himself. Naruto took a deep breath, releasing the boy from her hold and returned back to her seat.

"Naru-chan, I just want to…"

Naruto shook her head at Itsuka, who looked so humiliated for her classmate's actions. "If anyone should apologize for being an insensitive shit then it should be Crazy Eyes and if he is going to apologize then it is not to me. He needs to apologize to my class for acting like some deranged idiot."

No one was allowed to insult her classmates and get away with it.

* * *

"I haven't studied at all!"

Naruto rubbed the sides of her head as she watched Denki panicked about the upcoming exams, which were coming in just five days. Mina had the second worst grades but the girl was laughing and smiling, looking unconcerned about her results.

"You just need to study for the written paper and the rest will be easy." The two teens twisted their heads to look at her while her other classmates nodded their heads in agreement. They frowned at her—Aizawa had finally shown them their ranks and her classmates knew she was now ranked at number six.

"That is easy for you to say, Naru-chan!" Mina pouted. "You ranked sixth in the midsemester exam, so of course you think it is easy."

Frowning, the blonde slipped the seal into her bag and stared at her friends. _It was not always easy for me to study._ If this was the Academy in Konoha then she would have been in the same boat as them. Until she came to Japan, Naruto had stopped seeing the point of studying her heart out. The teachers in the Academy gave her papers that was harder than the papers her academy classmates had. The teachers had picked on her and at one point accused her of cheating the exam in her first year of school.

"If you just attended classes normally then you won't be failing," Shouto said. Naruto shook her head at the blunt words spoken by the boy while the other two teens frowned at him.

"That was just cruel, Todoroki!" Denki clutched his chest.

Shouto tilted his head and glanced at her, looking baffled at their classmate's action. She just shook her head and leaned closer to her friend, blue eyes never leaving her panicking friends. "He didn't want you to remind him that it is his damn fault for not paying attention to class."

He blinked and nodded, looking surprised at the answer. It was easy for her to forget that the boy could not completely understand why someone would be annoyed with his blunt words. She was used to blunt words if not from Shouto then it used to be from Sasuke, who used to remind her of her bad grades whenever she made a comment about how she was not the deadlast.

"If you guys had a problem with your studies then you can come over to my house," Naruto called out to her classmates. The whole classroom became quiet at her words, eyes widening at her offer. Everyone turned their heads to look at her as if they did not expect her to make such an offer.

She frowned. "Why are you guys surprised?"

"Because you never invited anyone to your house," Jirou pointed out.

The blonde blinked and blinked her eyes, realizing her friend was right. She never invited anyone to the house, always worried about how they would see her small apartment and be reminded of what she never had. Her friends and classmates were amazing but she did not want them to look at her with pity.

She sighed. "I never invited anyone because I didn't want anyone to see my crappy old apartment or be reminded that I worked part-time to pay rent. Since I am living with Uncle Kenji and my boss wants me to focus on my exams, I have time to help out."

Her classmates rubbed the back of their heads, cheeks flushed as she reminded her of her previous living situation. During the weeks leading up today, Naruto finally had the courage to tell about her new living arrangement with Kenji and his family. All of them had been happy for her and she never made it a point to remind them about her previous living situation.

"I can help out!" Momo offered.

Naruto grinned. "The more the merrier! Everyone can come over and we can get the whole studying thing on the way."

She blinked her eyes.

For the first time since Naruto came to Japan, she was going to have friends over in her house.

* * *

Uzumaki Kenji could only blink his eyes at the sight of Naruto and what must be half of her class behind her. When his niece send him a message telling him that she was having half of her friends over, he was expecting just two or three friends but not seven students. Most of the students had their eyes fixed on the scar running across his eye, only that Todoroki boy did not look nervous.

He better not since they met before.

"You should have mentioned you were bringing an army," Kenji grunted, eyeing the boys of the group. None of them looked like they have any ill-intentions on the girls although that Todoroki boy had his eyes fixed on his niece.

He really did not like that boy.

"They all want to study for the finals," Naruto chewed on her bottom lip. "It isn't a big problem is it? Because you said it is okay for me to bring friends here."

He shrugged his shoulders, staring at the students that kept flickering their eyes from him to his niece. He honestly did not care about the number of people she brought. From what he knew about her life in Konoha, his niece did not have many friends growing up. These people were probably the first people his niece considered to be her friends and Kenji could not deny her anything.

Just like he would give the moon to his children if they ask of him, Kenji would give the girl whatever she wished for.

"Make sure they aren't too noisy because Akane and Kiko also has exams to study for and Akane will find any excuse not to study," Kenji slipped his left hand into his pocket and gestured for the students to come in. The students filed in, eyes drinking in the sight of the seals plastered all around the house. The way their eyes widened almost made him want to buff his chest in pride; it was not easy to put so many seals in the house.

"You put a lot of charms around the house," Momo commented, drinking in the characters.

Kenji felt his lips twitched while Naruto could only smile. The way he build his seals might look like one of those lucky charms the people buy from the shine but only his family knew different. The moment the house was in danger then it would kick the person out. There were also seals around the furniture, making it difficult for any thieves to steal their stuff.

His wife and children believed he was being paranoid but he was taking precaution.

The teenagers made their way to her room, which was just the right size for their study group. Naruto placed her bag pack on the floor by the bed and gestured for her classmates to make themselves at home with her room. "So what are you guys doing badly in?"

"Everything!" Mina and Denki yelled.

"Quadratic function," Jirou called out.

"Classical literature!" Sero added.

Naruto pulled a face at the mention of literature. It had been her worst subject in the mid semester test, if it was not for Jiraiya then she probably would have failed the subject. Ero-Sennin might write those perverted books but who knew he had decent knowledge on the topics.

She glanced at Momo and Shouto, who had his eyes fixed on the plush fox on her bed. There was a strange expression on her friend's face as he drank in the sight of the fox. He glanced at her, bicoloured eyes revealing nothing about what he felt of seeing the fox on her bed.

It was okay for her to put a cute plush toy on her bed, wasn't it?

"I am crap when it comes to classical literature," Naruto glanced at Momo. "But Momo-chan is amazing when it comes to anything Japanese literature so maybe you can handle that bit? I know Shouto is good at science so he can take over that bit. I can deal with anyone who has problems with Math…that isn't a problem for anyone right?"

"It is fine with me."

"I see no problem."

Four hours and a lot of paper and some home-cooked ramen later, the students were nearly dying from mental exhaustion. Kaminari's head was spinning around with the information and Mina just looked like she wanted to sleep—both of them had been on the receiving end of Naruto's strange explanation on how the equations worked and Shouto's patient explanation on the topics.

Jirou, Toru and Ochako were fine from the teachings but they were also worn out—four hours of math and science would do that to anyone.

Naruto stretched her back. "I think we are done for the day."

Denki collapsed, closed his eyes and moaned. "Who knew you can go hours explaining about how all those equations work?"

The blonde rolled her eyes and picked up the boy's practice book, skimming for any mistakes that he made during her explanation. There were some slight errors in the rounding up of the decimal place, but considering her classmate had flunked the mid-semester exams…it was better than expected.

"Did I get this right?" Mina asked, pointing to the last question on her workbook.

Naruto tilted her head and took the notebook, checking for any mistakes. She grinned. "Yup! It looks like you might not have any problems if they brought these kind of questions in the exam."

"Yes!" Mina pumped her fist in the air before wrapping her arms around her. Naruto stiffened before forcing herself to relax into her friend's hug. _I don't think I am ever going to get used to having people willing to hug me._ Her friend released her from the hug, lips curled into a large and happy smile.

"Hey Naru-chan, who are these people?"

Naruto blinked her eyes and turned her head to look at Ochako, who was pointing to the picture of Team Seven.

' _Why the heck must I be in some stupid photo with him'_

' _Knucklehead, that's my line!'_

She felt herself being pulled back by reality when Shouto gently nudged her in the rib. She blinked and glanced at her friend, whose eyes shone with concern. The blonde took a deep breath and forced herself to smile widely at them, unwilling for them to see the pain and guilt inside of her. The photo was just a reminder of the days when she thought they were happy.

A reminder of when Team Seven had been family.

"They were my friends and teacher," Naruto grinned. "The scowling bastard is Sasuke and the smiling pink-haired girl is Sakura. The silver-haired man is Kakashi-sensei."

Momo tilted her head and made her way to Ochako, eyes locked on the only boy of her team. Her friend locked on the photo of Sasuke, eyes lingering on his face and then her eyes shifted to her scowling self. It was probably not the best photo Naruto had of her team and if she could go back in time, she would have made herself smile for the photo.

She would have told her younger self to stop being so self-centred and focus on her best friend because he needed someone to recognise he was not doing all that well.

"Sasuke looks like he has a crush on you," Momo commented gently, eyes lingering on the side-glance Sasuke gave her. "He seems to have his eyes fixed on you even in the photo and his eyes seem be scowling but you can really see the hints of love and care he has for you. Not that I can blame him since you look so cute with that scowl."

Blue eyes widened at those words and the desire to protest flooded in her. _Sasuke never had any feelings for me_. The words should have vomited out but something seemed to be stopping her from uttering the words. Memories flooded through her mind from the days his eyes used to soften slightly whenever he called her knucklehead to the way he took the time to eat with her.

More memories flashed through her mind of all the little things he used to do for her and her knees started to buckle when she realized the truth.

Oh god.

Sakura was damn right to call her an idiot.

"So did the two of you have a thing going on?" Kaminari wiggled his eyebrows. "Should Todoroki be worried about him?"

Naruto blinked and blinked her eyes as her mind processed what her classmate just asked. Blue eyes widened and she jerked her head to Todoroki, who had his eyes fixed on the photo. She furiously shook her head and made several excuses about how she needed to go to the kitchen to drink some water. There was no way she could show them about her realization.

She opened the fridge, grabbing the cola from the kitchen and began to gulp it down as her mind swirled with the information Momo pointed out to her. How could she not notice? How could she look back through her memories and only remember Sakura's feelings? Why did she only think Sasuke loved her like a sister? What the hell was wrong with her?

Some of his actions were not things Eisuke would have done for her or his sisters.

She twisted her body around and was taken back to see Shouto standing behind her, bicoloured eyes flashing with concern. _Are you okay?_ Those were what her friend's eyes were asking her as he drank in the sight of her panicking expression.

She shook her head. "I keep telling people that Sasuke did not like me in that way…I kept telling them that he saw me as his rival or like a sister. I never realized that he…"

"Likes you." Shouto finished as the blonde run her hand through her hair.

Naruto nodded. "How the fuck was I supposed to know? Sasuke never told me about his feelings and I just thought he liked me as a friend. We always argued and shit. Yes, he made one stupid comment about how my hair looks prettier longer but I just thought he was trying to cheer me up after the bullying. I mean we ate together but that was always because I was pushy!"

"Naruto…"

"How the hell was I supposed to know his feelings? I feel like an idiot."

Her friend stared at her for a good couple of seconds and flickered his eyes to the scenery, before wrapping his arm around her. Naruto blinked her eyes, breathed in and out, forcing herself to calm down the turmoil in her. She found herself relaxing into his hug, taking in his scent. For some reason, the scent of her friend was enough to calm her down.

It was enough for her to relax.

"You are not an idiot."

She blinked her eyes and looked at her friend, who stared down at her in concern. The way those eyes shone and the emotions flooding through them made her throat dried. Several emotions flooded through her; some of these emotions she recognized. Happiness, relief and gratitude for those words but there was another emotion that she could not pick out.

Her eyes locked on Shouto and she could not help but say, "I feel like one when everyone recognizes his feelings and I don't know. He is my best friend and I never knew he had a crush on me."

"Does it matter if he had a crush on you? If he told you now that he liked you, would you have said you liked him back?"

 _If Sasuke told me that he liked me, would I have return his feelings?_ She thought back to the days of Team Seven and to their academy days, wondering if at any point she felt the same way. _If he told me right now that he liked me, would I have said I like him back?_ Images of Shouto flooded through her mind and she realized there had never been a time when she felt the same way for Sasuke.

"No."

Shouto did not say anything but the slight relief in his eyes told her that he was happy with her answer. She felt her throat clogged up as she drank in her friend, realizing that he had always been there for her. Yes, at one point he hurt her with his words but he apologized to her. He gave her a stuffed fox because she wanted one even though he could have chosen a stuffed animal for himself.

She blinked her eyes as her mind swirled with memories of their own interactions. Naruto always considered him to be one of her closest friends in this country, being the first person to realize she was not as strong as she would like to be. He was always comforting her. In his own way Shouto was always trying his best to make her smile and she loved it.

She loved how Shouto cared for her. She loved being around him because he calmed down the raging emotions in her. Naruto loved his blunt words because she never liked it when someone took too long to get to the point. She loved how it easy was to talk to him about everything. Sometimes she had to stop herself from talking about Konoha, about being a kunoichi because she wanted to leave that part of her behind.

"I hate to ruin this loving moment but can the two of you move? I want to drink some apple juice!" Akane said, bringing the attention of the two teens to the preteen girl. Hazel eyes twinkled with mischief and Naruto felt a sense of dread in those eyes. "And you should really hide your displays of affection for your boyfriend from Dad!"

Naruto blinked her eyes and felt herself a loss when Shouto removed his arms from her. She stared at him, realizing that she never wanted to be away from her friend. Her blue eyes drank in her best friend, watching the way he interacted with his cousin, who pestered the boy with questions about his quirk.

Suddenly something dawned on her.

' _I like him.'_

She laughed.

 _I like him and I am terrified what that means for me._

* * *

 **A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter. Do you think the pace of the relationship is realistic or if it is going too fast?**


	34. Chapter 34

A/N: I want to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows

* * *

"Are…are you okay, Naruto?"

Kirishima had turned in his seat to look over his blond-haired classmate. Momo was staring at their friend in concern, knowing Naruto had been acting tense since the day they came over to study in her house.

Between these two while Aizawa-sensei gathered the exam booklet for their last exam; Naruto had the side of her head slumped against the table. Her blue eyes seemed to be so far away that the two students were at a loss on how to bring their classmate back to the reality. Her fingers gripped her pen as if it was her only lifeline to the world.

The two of them stared at her for just a moment longer before glancing at Todoroki. "Do you know what is wrong with Naru-chan, Todoroki-san?"

"Yeah, you are the one that knows her best," Kirishima said with a grin. "I mean physics can really kill a person's brain cells but Naruto seemed to have been doing alright during the whole exam week."

Todoroki nodded and gently poked the blonde in the rib. When the former kunoichi gave no response, the younger boy just nodded to himself as if the lack of response seemed to be the answer he needed.

"I think she spent the whole night practicing new ways on how to use her quirk with her uncle," he explained to them as the blonde muttered something under her breath. Shouto curled his lips and gently nudged the girl's shoulder. Aizawa now stood in front of the podium, explaining to them about how they needed to change to their costumes after lunch. The former kunoichi refused to snap out, blue eyes seemed to be turning slightly sleepy.

Todoroki sighed.

"Hey Naruto," Kirishima whispered, leaned further back in his chair. "I heard that there is a special deal for that joke's store that you like. It is a special deal for anyone under the age of…"

Naruto's ears slightly twitched. Her fingers slightly loosened her grip over her pencil and there was a slight hint that the blonde was returning back to reality. Kirishima frowned, glancing at the other two classmates to see if they had a better clue on how to get the girl out of her mood. Todoroki tilted his head and glanced at his friend.

"I will buy you ramen."

Naruto blinked her eyes and curled her lips into a large smile, pumping her fist in the air. Kirishima blinked while Momo just shook her head at the girl's antics. The blonde looked down at her empty desk before swirling her head to look at the younger boy. "First off, I am glad we are done with this hell. Secondly, I am going to take you up on that."

Todoroki just nodded.

"We only need to mention ramen and you will act like normal!" Kirishima said. The blonde laughed nervously while their two classmates shook their heads. "What happened just now? You seemed to be on fire when we were answering the questions. Did you just burn out?"

"I spent the whole night practicing my quirk with Ero-Sennin," Naruto rubbed the back of her neck, pressing the tense areas of her neck. "Apparently he decided yesterday was the perfect time for me to practice on a new technique. So it was tense training coupled with studying the whole force unit in just one night…I think that can kill me."

"You should have taken it easy," Momo pointed out to her. "It is not a good idea to both study and train before the finals."

"I know that now," Naruto grunted.

"Thanks to the both of you, I didn't leave a single question blank!" Kaminari declared, gliding over with a bright grin. He gave two thumbs up to the two girls. "Thanks Naruto! I owe you a date."

Kirishima and Momo glanced at the blonde and then to Todoroki before swirling their head to look at the happy blond. The former kunoichi snorted while the bicoloured boy's eyes twitched at the offer given to the girl. The two teens glanced at each other, unimpressed at the lack of the reaction from the boy.

"I think you owe the date to Shouto since he is the one that helped you with this part of the exam," Naruto said with a large smile playing on her lips. Kaminari grimaced while Mina just giggled, shaking her head at the boy's antics. "Besides I am not interested in you."

This earned raised eyebrows from the other classmates.

"Then are you interested in anyone in this class?"

Several heads turned to hear the response of the former kunoichi, eyes glinted with curiosity if the girl would admit about her feelings. Tanned cheeks flushed pink as she furiously shook her head at them. Her blue eyes avoided their knowing gazes while Todoroki just knitted his eyebrows.

"I am not answering that." Her classmates blinked their eyes at the question while the blonde glanced at Todoroki. _I am not going to confess my feelings to the whole class._ She tucked a strand of her blond hair and tried to calm down her racing heartrate. There was a desire to declare her feelings to the world but something held her back from telling her feelings.

' _I-It is not easy to confess Naru-chan! What if Kiba-kun doesn't like me?"_

 _I am starting to understand why Hinata-chan was so nervous when it came to confessing her crush._ Naruto flickered her eyes to Todoroki, who stared back at her. How could Sakura confess her feelings for Sasuke without a second thought? Was she never afraid of rejection? Because the thought of confessing her feelings and being rejected terrified her.

What if she confessed and their friendship was ruined?

Could she really take the chance? Naruto chewed on her bottom lip and shook her head. _I should be focusing on the exam instead of my feelings._ She could not allow her emotions to take control of her during the exams. There was plenty of time for her to think about how to confess to Shouto.

Plenty of time to figure out if she was willing to take the risk and potentially ruin this friendship between them.

* * *

"That was the best ramen!"

Todoroki curled his lips as the blonde flashed him a grin. He knew he should be slightly irritated how the girl ate fifty bowls of ramen but he could not bring himself to feel the irritation, not when his friend gave him that large smile.

(Besides the bill was being paid by his father and the more money being spent, the better)

"You should have eaten less ramen, Naru-chan," Ochako said, looking at her with concern. "Aren't you worried that you might get a stomach ache during the exam? We are not going to be allowed to go to the nurse during the exam!"

"Uraraka is correct!" Iida said loudly, slicing the air with his hand. He pushed his glasses upwards. "It is ill advised to eat so much food before a practical exam."

Shouto flickered his eyes to Naruto. The softness and the glint of happiness in her blue eyes spoke volumes about how much she loved the care their classmates were giving to her. He felt his lips twitched upwards when the blonde flushed red at his staring. He blinked his eyes when the blonde shifted closer to him, eyes twinkling with mischief.

"But Shouto should have known better than to offer to buy me all the ramen I can eat," Naruto defended, wrapping her arm around his. "He should be the one taking responsibility if I ever get a stomach ache during the exams."

He felt his face heating up at the close contact between them while Ochako laughed at the girl's antics. For a brief moment, he was concerned that his body temperature was increasing to the point that he might accidently burn the bubbly blond-haired girl.

"You seem to be heating up, Shouto." Naruto tilted her head, went on her tip toes and placed her hand on his forehead. Their other classmates chuckled with most of the boys looking at him like they knew the real reason for his body temperature increase. He flickered his eyes down to the girl, who blinked her eyes as she took in his appearance.

She flushed red and dropped her hand. "You are fine."

"I know," he frowned and stared down at her red face. "Are you starting to become sick? Because I know a pressure point that can ease your stomach ache."

The blonde flushed an even brighter red and furiously shook her head. "I am not sick! My face might be red as a tomato but it is not because I am sick. It is impossible for me to get sick since I never had a sick day in my life. My face is just red because I find it cute…someone please kill me now."

Todoroki could only blink his eyes as Momo patted the girl in her back, her onyx eyes glinting with amusement. He just tilted his head, drinking in the sight of the red-faced girl. No matter how many times the blonde flushed red or talked like this, he still found her expressions to be nice. They suited her more than those sad eyes he first saw her with.

"It would be sad if someone killed you."

Naruto blinked and blinked while everyone else just slapped their foreheads at him. He knitted his eyebrows, trying to understand why their classmates were looking at him like that. Was he not suppose to say that? It seemed like his friend really did want someone to kill her because of the words she was saying to him.

"What does Todoroki have that I don't have?" Mineta cried, rushing towards the blond-haired girl. Shouto felt his eyebrows twitched when he caught sight of which area of Naruto's body that the purple-haired boy was planning to target. Without a second thought, he froze the boy's legs and narrowed his eyes at him.

Naruto raised her eyebrows at him. "Did you really have to do that? I was planning to do what I warned Mineta about during the Sports Festival."

Shouto shrugged his shoulders and felt his lips curled upwards when the blonde just smiled and shook her head at him. It seemed like it was not a big deal for him to freeze their classmate's legs, not when his friend was giving that smile. If Naruto really did not want him to do it then he would respect her wishes even if it irritated him how Mineta acted around the girl.

"I didn't want him to touch you."

There was surprise in her eyes along with another emotion he could not pick out. He did not know what that emotion was in his friend's eyes—all he knew was that he liked the emotion in her eyes. It was strange and wonderful, almost made him feel warm and fuzzy.

He tore his eyes away from the blonde and stared at their classmates. Electricity seemed to crackled eagerly off Kaminari's fingers and Ashido was bouncing in her spot, hands clapped together and her caramel eyes locked on him and Naruto. "We just have to pass this exam and then we are done. Just think about the fireworks! The curry! And all those truth and dare sessions!"

Shouto glanced at Naruto, who seemed to look almost fearful when their classmate mentioned the word 'truth'. He tapped the girl on the shoulder and raised his eyebrow at her. What was wrong? She was doing okay just a few minutes ago. His friend shook her head, gave him a smile that told him that there was nothing for him to be concern about.

"The practical exam is going to begin shortly," Aizawa said, narrowing his eyes as he swept his gaze across all of them.

Shouto glanced at his classmates, noticing almost all of them looked excited for the exams. Even his blond-haired friend had a large smile playing on her lips as if she was confident she could pass these exams with flying colours. It would not surprise him if she did because out of everyone in their class, Naruto always seemed to score the highest in the practical exams.

He presumed it was because of her life as a child soldier.

"Obviously you can fail this test too," Aizawa reminded them. "So if you want to head to the forest lodge then we would better not see any pitiful blunders from you," he kept his eyes locked on Naruto. "I have no doubt you all learned whatever information you could gather from your seniors or one of your classmates. So I think you have a vague idea of what you are supposed to do."

"Yup, it is going to be like the entrance exams!"

"I can just see the fireworks!"

"Actually the exams are not quite like that this time around," Aizawa's face was shoved to the side as Principal Nezu popped free of his binding cloth. Shouto blinked, turned his head to look at Naruto, who just gawked at the sight. The humanoid animal clambered onto Aizawa's shoulder and lowered himself down to the floor. "Due to various reasons, we are changing to contents of the test, starting today!"

Ashido and Kaminari froze at their places. Naruto just scowled while Midoriya began to mutter beneath his breath beside him. Ochako paled.

"What do you mean?" Momo asked.

Their principal locked their eyes on Naruto. "Due to various reasons, we will focus our tests more on person-on-person battle activities and we are going to emphasize a teaching environment closer to the real battle."

"We will have you form pairs," Nezu waved his hands to the lined up of teachers. "You will engage in combat with one of these teachers."

Ochako flinched, eyes skimming over the teachers warily. "Against the teachers?"

"Your pairings and the teacher you will be fighting have already been decided," Aizawa explained calmly. "The way you tend to move, your grades and your degree of familiarity, all of these factors have been all taken into account with the pairings."

Shouto glanced at Naruto, noticing the way her eyebrows knitted together as she looked at their classmates. He frowned and took in the number of students in the class. _If we are doing in pairs then are we going to have one group of three? Who would they put in a group of three?_

"For starters," Aizawa said, tugging at his cloth. "Todoroki is with Yaoyorozu. You are going to go up against me."

"Midoriya," Aizawa continued and beside him Midoriya stiffened, head shooting up and fingers curled into a fist at his side. "You are with Bakugou and Uzumaki."

The three students stiffened. Midoriya began to sweat while Bakugou twisted his face into a scowl, looking not at all pleased about the match up. Naruto just had a tight smile playing on her lips, telling Todoroki that his classmate was not one bit pleased about the match-up.

"Did they put the three of us together because I am not in the best of terms with Explosive Head?" Blue eyes locked on the furious boy. "What were they thinking when they paired the three of us together? Our teamwork in the first exercise should be enough proof that we cannot work together."

Todoroki frowned and stared at the three teens, who kept glancing at each other. On the one hand he could somewhat understand why he paired them up. The girl got along with Midoriya while making snide comments to Bakugou, who yelled at her back. Bakugou always seemed ready to explode at the two teens. The three of them would either kill each other or they would be able to pass these exams without any problems.

"Your opponent …"

The ground rumbled. A bright, loud laugh pierced the air and colours flashed before all of them as a familiar, hulking figure landed before them. Naruto pressed her lips together, looking torn between smiling widely at the sight of their teacher or to poke her ears against her head and tell the man to stop laughing so loud. Knowing the blonde, it was probably a mixture of both.

"Will be up against me!" All Might's hand curled tight into a fist. "The three of you have to work together to win so come at me with everything you have got."

Shouto wondered if it was a good idea to tell Naruto that she could go full-out.

* * *

Bakugou stomped down the street of the residential area of their exam, scowling while his two other teammates kept glancing at him. Why the fuck must he be paired up with Deku and Whiskers? He did not need them to pass the exam. Deku could barely used his quirk while Whiskers would be more focused on protecting Deku than on the damn exam.

"Stop acting like a big baby and get your ass over here!" Whiskers snapped, charging over to him. "We need to start thinking of a plan to capture All Might."

Bakugou scowled. "A plan! It is fucking obvious that I should just knock him out!"

"I think we should avoid the battle at any cost." Deku said.

The whiskered blonde snorted. "You think that is going to be easy? All Might would make it hard for us to get out of here without battling him. The only way we can avoid battling him is by making sure that he won't even have a clue that we got out."

"But aren't you good at these things? Your quirk will allow us to move out of here without battling," Deku pointed out. Bakugou felt his temper rise at the suggestion his former childhood friend was giving them. He felt tempted to swing his fist at the boy but the constant yelling from Whiskers was all he needed to stop himself from doing it.

Whiskers was a pain in the ass.

"It is not going to let the two of you pass," The blonde closed her eyes and shook her head. "We need to work together to pass this damn exam and using my clones is not enough. If All Might give them one good hit to the gut then that is it. I still have not mastered the seal which would allow me to counteract those problems…so really we need another plan."

"Naruto, don't you understand who All Might is? No matter the number of handicaps, the idea that you could just beat him or even capture him is just…"

Bakugou glared at Deku. He swung his grenade covered arm at the green-haired boy, intending to punch him but only for a pair of tanned hands to grab hold of him. He narrowed his eyes at the blonde, who stared back at him with furious eyes.

"I get that your angry with his idea and I am also pissed off he thinks we should just give up," Whiskers hissed, eyes flashing red and Bakugou felt the hairs on his arm stood up from her menacing aura. "But punching him is not going to let us pass the damn exam. Now get your shit together and help us figure out how to pass this damn exam or I will knock some sense into you."

Before he could make some retort, there was a boom and then a wave of debris slammed into them from the other side of town. A blast of wind was about to sweep him and Deku away but Whiskers grabbed hold of them, blue eyes shining with so much determination that Bakugou almost forgot the girl in middle school.

' _Her eyes are so damn emotionless.'_

Those had been his first thought when their middle school teacher introduced Whiskers to the whole class.

"Do you see my point? I am telling the both of you so that we can pass the exam, Naruto, Kacchan! Please listen."

Whiskers shook her head while Bakugou clenched his hands into a fist. "I told you, I don't need any help from the both of you. I don't need the two of you to pass the exam."

"Would you stop yelling!" Deku yelled back. "That's why we can never have a proper conversation!"

Whiskers growled and dropped the two boys on the ground. She placed her hands on her hips, blue eyes flashed with so much anger that it would not surprise Bakugou if the blonde planned to smash her fist against them. For all those smiles, he knew the blonde had a temper just as bad as his.

"I am listening and I am telling you that not battling All Might is insane," Uzumaki snarled. "What is the point of being in the hero course if you don't put your whole effort into it! Bakugou! They put us in a team for a god damn reason! Now use your…."

"Who gives a damn about destroying the town?"

Bakugou felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. The menacing aura pouring from All Might almost made him want to choke. _Whack._ He felt a throbbing sensation from where Naruto slammed her fist against his head and he opened his mouth to yell at her, only to find Deku had the same injury in the same amount.

"I did that so you don't get distracted by the Killer Intention coming from All Might," the blonde snapped.

The Symbol of Peace emerged from the cloud of debris with his eyes glowing, a dangerous smile spread wide on his face.

"If the three of you are thinking of this just as a test then you are in a world of pain. Come at me with everything you got."

* * *

Naruto chewed on her bottom lip as she stared down at All Might, her blue eyes locked on All Might who was now trying to find them. She glanced at her two teammates. The green-haired boy looked hopeful as if he wanted them to escape from his hero while Bakugou stared at her with anger, unhappy with how she placed a smoke bomb around All Might just so they could regroup.

"I know of a way that can trap All Might in place," her classmates blinked their eyes and the blonde flickered her eyes at them. "Normally I would use my shadow clones to cause a distraction but this is a team exercise, which means either we all pass or we all fail. Now I know the two of you are in shitty terms but you saw All Might. He won't let us escape if we don't attack him and we can't capture him without tipping him off."

"I would rather lose to All Might then work with the two of you."

 _Punched._

Naruto blinked her eyes, trying to process the fact Izuku punched Bakugou on the face. She felt like laughing or giggling at the change but all she could feel was weariness. The fact Izuku punched Bakugou meant he was even getting fed up with the behavior. The three of them had been stuck battling the hero for the last fifteen minutes and only now Izuku understood her point.

"Aren't you the kid who never gives up on winning!" Izuku said, his green eyes locked on Bakugou.

' _I will never give up even if things become shitty because that is my ninja way.'_

Naruto stared at Bakugou and realized with a grimace that the two of them were more similar than she would like to admit. Blue eyes widened as she glanced at Izuku and than her blond-haired classmate as memories of the chunin exam flooded into her mind. Hinata had been angry with her at one point, telling her that it was not like her to have so little confidence in her abilities. The whole time she had been comparing to Izuku to Hinata but not once did she stop to think there was a similarity between her and Bakugou.

 _Although I would rather be kicked in the gut then hurt Hinata-chan._

"You know I hate losing too," the two boys blinked and the blonde rubbed her chin. "I have a motto of not giving up and my biggest regret till now s that I gave up. So tell me Bakugou, are you going to be a big crybaby when you realize that you gave up on your way? Maybe you don't deserve to be a fucking hero if you are just going to give up."

"Who the fuck are you to say that!"

"I am the head bitch in charge!" Izuku and Bakugou blinked their eyes as the blonde locked her eyes on their target. She glanced down at her hands, eyebrows knitted together as she tried to recall the exact order needed to produce the temporary binding seal. She twisted her head and grinned. "So are you two going to listen up or what?"

"I don't like you."

"Ditto."

Izuku could only blink his eyes at them, trying to understand the hidden message behind their words.

* * *

 _What is taking them so long?_ Todoroki had his eyebrows knitted together as he stared at the screen, showing the battle between All Might and his classmates. Momo stood by his side, eyebrows knitted together as their teacher tried to search for their classmates. He presumed Naruto would have finished the exam earlier with the use of her clones, it would have been easy for them to escape.

Then again Naruto probably wanted the exam to be fair for their classmates.

"She is using Midoriya and Bakugou as a distraction," Momo said, jerking her finger towards the screen. The two boys were charging towards All Might while in the corner of the screen, the blonde seemed to be inscribing something onto the ground around the hero. "Is that a good idea? They might get seriously injured, why doesn't she use her clones?"

"One good punch and they disappear," Todoroki pointed out. He knitted his eyebrows when All Might swung Izuku away. Bakugou tackled the hero while Midoriya groaned in pain. "I don't think Naruto figure out a way to make sure her clones don't disappear after one good punch, which is why Midoriya and Bakugou are charging after All Might. If All Might knew her location then he would be constantly targeting her along with Bakugou and Midoriya."

"Then why isn't Uzumaki not charging with them? What is she doing exactly?" Momo asked. "She has enough strength to handle All Might in his current state so why won't she do it?"

 _Because Naruto wants all of them to pass._ In the months he came to know of his classmate, he learnt that the blonde cared for everyone. Despite her constant scolding matches with Bakugou and the snide comments made by the boy, the girl cared enough about him to want them to pass. She also probably thought it would not be fair if only she just passed.

He explained all of this to Momo.

"You really seem to understand Naru-chan," Momo commented as the blonde formed the familiar hand signs to make her clones. Todoroki blinked and frowned when he saw the knowing glint in his classmate's eyes, wondering what the girl was thinking about. "I mean you already figure out her reasons."

"You spent enough time with Naruto too," Todoroki pointed out. "Can you imagine her not trying her hardest to make sure everyone passes?"

Momo nodded. Her onyx eyes were locked on Naruto, who was now closing her eyes as she ran towards the center of her inscription. Todoroki tilted his head as the blonde shouted at the two boys. The two boys glanced at each other, lips curled into a grimace. They pulled away from All Might and to his surprise and shock, there was a strange bluish glow around the man.

"What did she do?"

Todoroki shrugged his shoulder and watched as the hero attempted to take a step towards them. All Might seemed to be frozen in his place; eyes widened at the trap set out by their classmate. _Seals are very useful._ His observations were right when it came to the new technique Naruto told him about. If the girl could figure out a way to use it in battle without relying on someone then it would be a fearsome technique.

Naruto summoned her clone. The clone opened her mouth and judging from the irritated expression on his friend's face, he could guess the copy was trying to argue with her. Finally after some yelling matches, the clone jumped into circle, pulled out the weapon and cuffed the hero.

' _Team Uzumaki, Bakugou and Midoriya—Pass!"_

* * *

 **A/N: Please review and tell me what you think. Do you think the characters are very out of character**?


	35. Chapter 35

A/N: I want to thank everyone that added this story to their favorites and follows.

* * *

Naruto felt her throat dried up when she caught sight of the cake on the table.

She could never imagine a day where someone would take the time and effort to make her a cake to celebrate the end of her exams, since no one seemed to think she deserved this much.

"What is this for?"

Kumiko smiled softly, setting down the last plate onto the table. Steam rose up from the hot noodles, golden chicken barely peeking between the depths of noodles and vegetables. Naruto's eyes darted to the other plates of food.

There were several dishes placed on the table—fried rice, chicken katsu, tofu, beef curry, plain rice (Kiko hated fried rice and threw a tantrum if someone forced her to eat it), hamburger steak and finally some onigiri. She could only smile widely at the sight of the food and she clenched her hands into a fist as her mind swirled with ways to thank the woman.

"We should celebrate the end of your exams," Kumiko smiled as Naruto took a seat on the table. "I know you didn't have many people congratulate you for finishing your exams and studying so hard, so I thought why not make this much food to congratulate you."

' _Mum made some food to congratulate you for passing the genin exams!'_

Blue eyes began to swell with tears. Naruto rubbed her eyes furiously, sniffing and taking deep breaths to calm down her emotions. A pair of pale hands wrapped around her, giving her the warmth that her childhood self was so starved of.

"Thank you," Naruto said, giving the woman a large smile.

"It was my pleasure to do this," Kumiko said softly. She smiled gently but there was a sadness in the smiles. "You deserve this."

"I wish you said that whenever I pass my exams! Or make this much food whenever I finished my exams!" Eisuke called out, walking out of the kitchen door. He smiled widely and placed the plate of grilled mackerel on the table. Kumiko raised her eyebrows at her son while Naruto giggled. "What is that expression, Mum?"

"I would have made you this much food if you didn't decide to skip our dinners so you can go and celebrate with all those girlfriends of yours," Kumiko sniffed and looked out at the shelf. A photo of a smiling fourteen-year-old Eisuke stood there. "You should have been more focused on your studies instead on those girls."

"Mum, you always told me to treat girls with gentleness and care!" Eisuke protested.

Kumiko stilted her eyes and scowled at her son. The hero flinched and looked down on his feet, shuffling back and forth as he avoided his mother's furious eyes. Naruto placed her hand over her mouth to hide her laughter from the two arguing adults.

"It does not mean you have to accept their offers," Kumiko said dryly as the red-haired boy attempted to steal the onigri from the table. The auburn-haired woman swatted his hand and shook her head at the boy. "If you keep acting so kind to all those girls then how will any girl believe you are serious about them? I would like to have some grandchildren from you, you know."

Naruto chewed on her bottom lip and stared down at her empty plates, tuning out the argument brewing from her cousin and his mother. Her stomach roared, telling her to focus on the meal and stuff herself with the food because she was able to get Izuku and Bakugou to work together. She was finally able to use one of the seal Kenji drilled into her head. But her lips wobbled and a memory flashed through her mind, reminding her that no matter how much she tried to convince herself she did not deserve this.

 _Should I be allowed to have this much happiness?_

 _Can I be happy with the way I abandoned Sasuke?_

 _I should have tried harder to bring him back home because he was willing to sacrifice his dreams for me._

' _We are not going to leave you alone to suffer again,'_ Hazel eyes flashed with so much sincerity, telling her that she had family. ' _No one hurts a member of my clan and gets away with it'_

"You know you can start digging in," Eisuke said gently. Naruto blinked and stared at her smiling cousin and aunt. Kumiko nodded. "Akane and Kiko are probably not hungry since they never get any appetite when they have exams. Dad is too busy experimenting with his seals that there needs to be an earthquake for us to pull him away from his work."

"He is a workaholic just like his son," Kumiko placed some rice onto her own plate. Green eyes softened and the fondness in her voice told the blonde that she did not mind her husband's habits. "Do you want to tell us about your practical exam? I know your godfather and Kenji had been training you to the ground when it came to that part of the exam. Did it go well?"

Naruto bobbed her head and Kumiko frowned, eyebrows knitted together. "Are you worried about the exams? Because you were studying so hard with your classmates."

"There is no way I failed the exams," Naruto reassured, forcing herself to pile some food into her plate.

Kumiko nodded and clapped her hands together. "If that is the case then maybe you should invite some of your classmates to the house. I would love to have a proper introduction with your classmates! They looked like they are wonderful people."

"There is a bunch of idiots in the batch," Kenji called out. The red-haired man grunted as he took his seat on the table, patches of ink covered the sides of his cheeks. Eisuke frowned while Naruto narrowed her eyebrows. "Don't give me that look, brat. Three of your classmates needed to be saved from their stupidity."

"They looked lovely when they came over, very friendly." Kumiko smiled shyly at Naruto. "Especially that Todoroki boy…he seems to care very much about you. The two of you seem to be very close—it is almost like the two of you are in your own private world when you are around each other."

 _Our own private world? Does it mean he like me? Or is Aunt Kumiko trying to give me false hopes?_ Naruto locked her eyes on her plate while her aunt frowned, looking put down by the lack of confirmation. Kenji kept his hands on the side of the table, hazel eyes locked onto her while Eisuke frowned.

 _I have the whole summer to figure out what to do._

"My classmates are the best, aren't they?"

"Well they are not complete idiots."

"Dad, they just made one mistake!"

* * *

"Start talking about your problems or I will put a truth seal on you."

Naruto jerked her head away from the seal. She sat on the chair of her uncle's training room, legs crossed over each other. She had her pencil over her ears and to her left was her phone, which seemed to be vibrating with the new messages popping up. She chewed on her bottom lip and stared at her solemn uncle.

The middle aged man kept his eyes fixed on her. He sat cross-legged on the floor, sheets of paper sprawled around him. His arms folded against his chest and his eyes flashed with concern. "Are you going to start talking or should I try the seal on you?"

"Most people would ask are you okay," Naruto grumbled, moving her papers to the side of her table. Kenji did not even smile at her words, only giving her an unimpressed look as he waited for her to spill her problems. "What makes you think something isn't right?"

"For one, you look like your mother whenever she was facing some turmoil," Kenji cracked his neck and kept his eyes locked on her. "Second, you look like you were in deep in thought throughout the whole dinner."

 _Nothing escapes him._ Naruto wondered if it was from the years of battle or if her uncle was just finely tuned to her emotions because there was no way he could figure out her turmoil from just her appearance. In the whole time she lived in Konoha, only a few people noticed the pain and turmoil inside of her.

"Is it okay for me to be happy?"

Kenji raised his eyebrow. "Is there a reason why you should not be allowed to be happy?"

' _I will bring back Sasuke for sure! That is my_ _ **promise**_ _of a lifetime!'_

 _I made a promise to her and instead of trying to keep my promise…I run away from it._ Naruto chewed on her bottom lips and stared at the forehead protector displayed on the wall. She should have stayed in the village because she should not be allowed to be happy until she saved her best friend. If she wanted to become a hero then she should save Sasuke.

She should save him because Naruto knew he would have done the same for her.

' _My body just moved on its own.'_

"I made a promise to bring back my best friend back," Naruto took in a deep breath as her heart throbbed with pain. "And instead of trying to keep my promise to Sakura-chan, I am letting myself be distracted by thoughts of love and friendship. How can I let myself fall in love if I can't bring him back to the girl who loved him from the beginning? How can I be happy when I haven't bring him back?"

Silence reigned throughout the room, the only sound made were the sounds of Akane and Kiko arguing with each other in the next room. Kenji closed his eyes, took a deep breath and just stared at her. No emotions shone through his eyes, not giving her a hint of what he seemed to be thinking.

"You cannot choose when to fall in love," Kenji looked out at the window. "If you could when or who to fall in love with then it might make your lives easier…but it won't be life. As much as it pains me to say this—it is okay to be in love. There is nothing wrong with being happy."

"But I made a promise."

Kenji placed his hands into his pockets, eyebrows scrunching as if he seemed to be searching for something. Irritation flashed through his eyes when he pulled out his pockets to reveal nothing. The man shook his head and walked towards her.

Putting his hands on her shoulder, Kenji said. "A promise to bring him back but it doesn't mean you have to put your whole life on hold for your best friend. Do you think if the boy was really your friend that he would want you to suffer like this? Or would he want you to be happy?"

 _I don't know anymore._ Naruto pressed her fingers against her temple as memories of her childhood flashed through her mind. Throughout their time as a team, she presumed Sasuke loved her like a sister just like she loved him like a brother. Would he be happy for her if she told him she had feelings for another boy? Would he accept it? Or would he become angry?

Three years ago, she would have been confident and say he would be happy for her.

"I don't know anymore," Naruto took a piece of paper and started to doodle. "I used to think Sasuke loved me like his sister and so I would like to think he would be happy for me. I know if he found someone who loved him as much as I love Shouto then I would be happy for him. If anyone deserves happiness then it should be him."

"You would do anything for his happiness." Kenji noted.

"I am willing to die for his happiness," Kenji opened his mouth to protest and the blonde shook her head. "I know you think I am stupid to throw my life away for someone like that—but I know Sasuke would have done the same for me. He took a risk and sacrificed his dreams because he thought I was going to get killed. How can I not be willing to do anything? Until he did that, I never really thought someone would be willing to die for me."

 _If Sasuke was willing to sacrifice his dreams of killing Itachi for me then I should bring him back home._

 _He deserves to be saved from his own stupidity._

 _He deserves to be happy._

* * *

"Everyone…I 'm…I'm looking forward… _to hearing all of your stories!"_

Mina's cries pierced through the air, tears pouring down her eyes. Satou, Kirishima and Denki hung their heads down, heavy lines shadowed their faces.

Naruto winced and hugged her classmate, who sobbed on her shirt. _This would have been me if Izuku didn't knock some sense into Bakugou._ She rubbed the girl's back, frowning as she tried to find the right words to comfort the sobbing girl.

"D-Don't despair!" Izuku said, waving his hands and giving the four students a hopeful smile. "There could totally be some unexpected twist."

"You shouldn't say that Midoriya because you might just jinx it," Sero sighed, clasping Izuku over the shoulder. "We need to wait and see what happens."

"If we failed the exams then we don't get to go to the training camp!" Kaminari began darkly. "We will be stuck in remedial hell and we never passed the practical…so if you don't get that then—"

Naruto grimaced, almost winced when Kaminari's fingers came crashing down and Izuku let out a cry as the boy continued to jab his eyes. "—your intelligence is that of a monkey, you bastard."

"Calm down dude," Sero sighed. Naruto let go of Mina and made her way towards Izuku. The boy rubbed his eyes, redness peeked out of his eyes. Shouto stood by his seat watched as the blonde hovered over the boy, checking for any signs of damage even though she had no medical knowledge. "That was one hell of a rant."

Sero tugged the collar of his uniform, "I'm not sure either, you know. Our team passed thanks to Mineta but I was asleep the whole time."

Naruto nodded as Izuku tried to reassure the blonde he was fine. Shouto went over to them, eyes locked on the green-haired boy who still seemed to be clutching his eyes in pain. Nodding his head, Todoroki offered a frosted hand to the boy. Naruto twisted her head to look at her classmates. "Well if you fell asleep then you probably failed, Tape Boy."

"You shouldn't dash my hopes like that, Naruto!" Sero waved his hands. "There is a chance I might have passed since we have no idea about how they are scoring it."

The blonde had her eyes locked on Todoroki's frosted arms. "Well teamwork is definitely going to be one of the things they are going to look out and how you used your quirk," she tilted her head. "From what I saw during your match with Midnight-sensei…you were knocked out quickly so your teamwork and quirk use is going to be low."

"Naru-chan, you should be trying to cheer us up and not bring us down!" Mina cried. Naruto twisted and offered a sheepish smile at her friend. The girl folded her arms against her chest. "You look so cute with that smile so I guess you can be forgiven…but to make it up to me then bring me back a lot of stuffs! Don't forget me."

"Of course Mina-chan!" The blonde gave a thumbs up while the pink-skinned girl sobbed even more uncontrollably.

The door slid open with a loud _slam._ Naruto twisted, eyes widened at the sight of their teacher looking unamused at the scene in front of him. Aizawa faced them with his usual unimpressed expression, his books tucked under his arms.

"Once the bell rings, you _go to your seats."_

The students scrambled back to their seats as their teacher stepped into the podium. The tired eyes of Aizawa swept across the students, lingering on Naruto, Bakugou and Izuku. He kept his eyes locked on the dejected students, his face showed no emotions on how he felt for his students. Finally, he addressed them.

" _Unfortunately_ some of you have failed and as a result," Aizawa paused and stared at the dejected students. "Everybody is going to the training camp."

"A LAST MINUTE TWIST!"

"I had to be paired up with Bakugou to know that it was for nothing," Naruto muttered as Todoroki awkwardly patted her on the back. She smiled. "Well at least I got to test the seal."

"We can go too? We can really go too?"

Aizawa nodded. "None of you failed the written exams but for the practical: Satou, Kirishima, Ashido, Kaminari and Sero all failed."

Sero slumped and sunk down in his seat. "I knew it even before Naruto pointed out my faults but…I still hope that I scored enough not to fail the exam."

"For this exam, we villains left you a way to win while observing on how you faced the challenges we set for each of you. If we never did this then you would all have run into a dead end before the challenges even really began."

Ojiro sweated. "So when you said you were coming at us to crush us…"

"That was to drive you into a corner," Aizawa confirmed. His eyes flickered on Naruto, who relaxed her shoulders, and then to Izuku and Bakugou. "Some of you really exceeded our expectations. However, the training camp is a boot camp to begin with and so the students who failed are the ones that needs it the most."

Aizawa grinned. "It was a logical ruse."

Naruto smiled as her classmates launched into cheers while Iida complained about the logical ruse used by their teachers. She flickered her eyes at Shouto. She smiled even wider at him and the boy blinked, before offering her a tiny smile in return.

"However the five of you still failed," Aizawa said flately, effectively stopping the cheers of her classmates. "The five of you have earned yourselves special remedial lessons and to put it bluntly, they will be harder than what you would have got if you had them on campus."

From the seriousness of their teacher's eyes, Naruto was just glad she was not being forced to do extra lessons.

* * *

 _So many things to buy._

Naruto flipped through the thick pamphlet, mentally ticking the things needed for the boot camp. Sleeping bags. Tents were not necessary. Papers were needed. Flashlights. Training shoes. These were all the things she did have. Even if Kenji and his family did not have it, she did have enough money in her savings to buy these things.

"They covered everything," Momo commented, onyx eyes skimming through the pamphlet. "They even made some suggestions on what to do before departure," she knitted her eyebrows together. "There is even a suggestion to bring some old gym shoes and gym outfits."

"At least one thing I don't need to buy," Ochako said happily.

 _At least there is no suggestions about swimwear._ Naruto knew Aizawa would never be persuaded by Ero-Sennin but the blonde still had a lingering doubt on how much persuasion her godfather would have. She chewed on her bottom lip, eyes lingering on the bolded statement of the gym outfits. Was this Ero-Sennin doing? She knew the man was going to train all of them but in what ways.

"There is even a team bonding exercise!" Mina declared, jerking her finger to the third page of the pamphlet.

"It is an entire week of training," Iida reminded them, his eyes locked on the pamphlet.

"I don't have a bathing suit or anything," Kaminari muttered. "It has been so long since I have been to the beach or pool."

Her female classmates lit up and the blonde wondered if she should tell them whether it was a bad idea to get some brand new swimsuits. _They should be warned but it is rite of passage for them to realize just how perverted Ero-Sennin is._ It would be funny to imagine how her friends would try and kill her perverted godfather for his antics.

"You find his words amusing." Shouto commented, slipping the pamphlet into his bag.

The blonde leaned closer to her classmate and whispered. "Ero-Sennin is coming on the trip too so I am trying to imagine how the girls are going to try and kill him."

"Should you not tell them to be careful? And is it wise to bring a pervert?" Shouto questioned, eyebrows knitted together. "He did write those books Mineta and Kaminari are fond of."

Naruto nodded. "I should tell them but it is kind of funny to imagine them react to him and I can keep him under control—I think."

Her friend did not look convinced, his eyes lingered on her and than on Mineta, who declared he needed night vision goggles. Naruto smiled and poked the boy on the rib, earning a surprised look from him. She held up her thumb. "Don't worry about my modesty."

"What are you two talking about?" Mina asked, sliding to the empty seat beside them. Her caramel eyes glinted with excitement as it always did whenever she saw a shipping couple. She grinned. "Are you guys discussing about how to be alone during the camp."

The two teens blinked and it was not long before…

"No! Of course not! Mina-chan!"

Mina crackled. "It is so easy to embarrass you, Naru-chan!"

 _I think I should have kept my hair long._ Naruto covered her red cheeks with her hands as Shouto looked at the two of them with confusion. Mina giggled and swung her arms over her, caramel eyes twinkling with delight at the girl's embarrassment.

"I am not embarrassed," She finally choked out.

 _If she wants me to confess then it will never happen._

"Wait a minute!" Hagakure said cheerfully, drawing all the students attention towards her. "We all have something to buy and since we have a day off tomorrow…why don't we go shopping together at the mall!"

"That's a great idea!" Kaminari exclaimed, grinning at them. Naruto relaxed her shoulders when Mina focused her attention on the boys. "Won't this be the first time we all hang out together as a class?"

Naruto tilted her head. _I have never really been invited with a huge group of people? And I don't really know most of my classmates as well as I should._ She combed her hair with her fingers, thinking if she was willing to not tell her boss that her exams ended. _I want to enjoy my time with them._

"You're coming right, Naru-chan?" Momo asked, beaming at her.

She nodded. "I got things to buy."

"Will you be going, Todoroki?" Izuku asked.

Her friend flickered his eyes at her, looking thoughtful for a moment before shaking his head. "I visit my mother on my days off."

"Would it kill you to join in for the fun once?"

Naruto narrowed her eyes at Mineta. "Can you not think about yourself for once? It is up to Shouto to decide whether he wants to come or not."

Even if it did make her slightly sad that her friend was not coming with them, the blonde understood how important it was for him to see his mother. It was wrong to hold it against him especially when she knew how much he missed his mother.

She wanted to see Shouto happy even if it meant they were not going to spend time together.

* * *

"That will look so cute on you, Naru-chan!"

Naruto raised her eyebrows at the beaming Mina, who pointed to one of the orange sandals on offer.

"I want to buy sneakers, not sandals."

Naruto really was starting to regret going to the mall with her classmates.

There had been awkward, slight star stuck and even curious looks directed at her when she arrived to the mall. A couple of handful of people even congratulated her for winning the Sports Festival, asking her for a photo and her autographs. It was nice and Naruto soaked the attention but it felt weird. These people knew her name and her appearance from television.

Naruto had a small backpack slung over her shoulders even though she tried to convince Kumiko that she did not need to bring a bag to the mall. Her seals should be enough for her to bring the money but the woman directed the water at her, saying rather calmly that it was an order. Her outfit was a dark red crop top and a pair of blue shorts. She met up with her friends, greeting them and they just began to walk around.

Somewhere along the way, they just decided to split up. It was not somewhere along the way if Naruto was honest. Everyone had around hundred suggestions on where they should go first and the blonde had no idea where to go and buy a pair of new sneakers. She had only been to Kiyoshi Shopping Ward just once and needed someone to guide her. Momo and Jirou said they wanted to go and look for duffle bags, asking her if she wanted to come with them. Their eyes told her she should come with them but Naruto, being the idiot she was, decided she needed to go and buy shoes.

She should have known her group was going to consists of Mina.

"Then what about these?" Mina pointed to the orange sneakers on the right. The girl grinned, looking pleased at her choice of shoes. Naruto chewed the inner corner of her cheek and grabbed the sneaker, squinted to read the price of the shoes. She pressed the inside of the shoe, trying to guess if it would feel comfy for her to wear.

"They don't feel uncomfortable so I will go ahead and buy it."

"Aren't you going to try it on? I want to see how it looks on you!"

Naruto considered the shoe and then looked at Mina, who looked so hopeful to see her wear the sneakers she picked out for her. _Mina-chan did pick out these shoes for me so I can't tell her no._ She rubbed the back of her neck and finally relented, earning a grin from the girl. Her friend grabbed her arms and dragged her to the seating area, where there were several people trying on shoes.

Naruto slipped out of her black sneakers and into the orange sneakers. She pressed her feet together and closed her eyes as she tried to figure out if she felt comfortable in the shoes. Naruto nodded. There was no desire to scratch the shoes out. She twisted her leg, blue eyes lingering on the band logo.

"So?"

"It feels…"

The words were stuck in her throat when a man passed through the shop windows. For a moment time seemed to stop when the man twisted his body to look at her, ponytail swept to the side as he stared at her. Onyx eyes locked on her and the orange shoes on her hand.

Naruto dropped the shoes and sprinted out of the door, ignoring the cries of Mina to explain who was the man staring at them.

 _I want to know why he is alone._

* * *

"Uchiha Itachi! What the hell are you doing here!"

Itachi had found the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki when she was not at school. It had been pure luck for him to find Naruto here since he presumed the girl was going to be at school. He had been able to convince his partner that it would be a terrible idea to attack the blonde when she was at school. If it was not for the fact they needed some groceries and his partner wanted some alone time then he probably would have never found the girl in a crowded area.

Itachi stared at the girl. Naruto no longer had the long blond hair his little brother adored, instead her blond hair barely touched her shoulders now. The girl gave off an aura of fury. Several people glanced at them but made no comment about the yells.

"Uzumaki Naruto."

"What do you want?" Blue eyes shone with weariness. "We are in a crowded place so you better not think about attacking me here. I don't want to cause an alarm in the area."

He nodded. "I don't plan to attack you, Naruto. I wish to talk to you."

"You want to talk to me?" He nodded and the blonde snorted. "Do you really expect me to believe that? Since when do you want to talk?"

"I need your help."

Blue eyes widened at his words. He kept his face completely blank as the blonde twisted her head to look for his partner, no doubt she believed this was a trap. She closed her eyes and eyebrows knitted together as the blonde tried to find the other members of the Akatsuki. She slumped her shoulders.

"Why do you need my help? I thought you want to take me away and get the Kyuubi."

He shook his head. "I need you to help me get Sasuke back to Konoha."

"Seriously?"

Itachi felt his lips twitched at the blonde's outburst while several pedestrians turned to look at them. Their eyes lingered on Naruto, who seemed to be completely unbothered from the stares. _When she was a child, she would have adored their stares._ It was further proof that Naruto had changed in the last three years. Time away from Konoha had made the girl a little bit more mature.

"I want to bring Sasuke back to Konoha," he repeated himself. "He is not safe with Orochimaru."

The blonde snorted. "How long did it take for you to realize that?"

He just stared at her.

"Why do _you_ need _me_ to rescue Sasuke?" The blonde looked down at her hands. "Weren't you the one that told him bonds were weak? Why do you want him to be rescued?"

"I made a huge mistake," he admitted. "I never planned for this to happen."

Blue eyes softened at his plea and Itachi wondered if the girl was willing to listen to his plea. The chances of her accepting his request might be small not when the girl seemed to have friends in this country. He took another step closer to the girl, who remained in her spot.

"What makes you think I can be of any use?"

"I know that Sasuke still cares about you," Itachi locked his eyes onto the blonde. "You are his most precious person, Naruto."

"I know I am," Itachi blinked his eyes as the blonde stared out at the couples surrounding them. "Even though he shoved his chidori through my chest, I know Sasuke loves me. If he truly hated me or never gave a shit about me then he would never miss my heart. Did you know that? Even when he said he was going to kill me…he could not bring himself to do that."

He blinked at her words. Itachi had never knew what happened between the two young shinobi—he only knew Naruto failed to bring his brother back home. He presumed the villagers had been harsh on her again. He thought she left the village because of her regret for not bringing his baby brother back home. He never knew Sasuke went that far with the girl.

"If you want me to bring Sasuke back then tell me the truth."

Itachi stared at her.

"You told Sasuke your motive for killing the clan was power but my boss asked me a question and I spent a whole day thinking about it," Naruto locked her eyes on him. "If you wanted power then why did you leave Sasuke alive? Are you trying to protect him? Because I refuse to believe that the gentle boy who loved his brother so much would hurt him in the worst possible way for power."

Blue eyes hardened.

"Tell me the truth about why you killed your clan. "

* * *

A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter


	36. Chapter 36

A/N: I want to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows as well as reviewed the last chapter.

* * *

"Do you want to know the truth even if it changes the way you see Konoha?"

Black eyes stared blankly at her as they took a seat in one of the private booths in the café inside the mall. The two of them decided it would be best to find a private place to talk. If they talked out in the open then it would be a matter of time before her classmates found her.

The vibrations coming off her phone told Naruto her classmates were trying to locate her. Itachi locked his eyes on her phone, not making a single comment to tell her to shut off her phone. She kept her eyes fixed on the man as she lowered down the volume of her phone.

"If you want me to help you then you tell me about that night," Naruto opened the menu and fixed her eyes on the delicious cakes on offer. "I want to know what happened that night even if it shatters everything I know."

 _She has changed._ Itachi pressed his lips and stared at the young woman, realizing for the first time the confidence in her. The innocent blue eyes of her childhood was gone and replaced by eyes blazing with the desire to know the truth. He took in a deep breath—ribs cracked under the breath and for a brief moment he recalled the words spoken by the medic in one of the villages he went with his partner.

He needed to take rest.

"The Uchiha Clan planned were planning a coup d'état against Konoha," Itachi paused when a waitress opened the curtains to look at them. She had a cheerful smile playing on her lips, a notepad in one hand and a pen in another hand.

"Oh? Do you want me to come back later?"

"Actually can you bring me some chocolate cake? And can I have a watermelon milkshake?" Naruto pointed to the cake on the menu and tilted her head at him. She nodded. "The guy over there will have some green tea."

The waitress scribbled down the note, bowed slightly and then closed the curtains. He raised his eyebrow as Naruto pressed her fingers against her temple. Should he feel impressed the girl knew his order? Or be insulted she thought what he would prefer to drink? Itachi shook his head. The current goal was to get the girl to help him with his brother.

"A coup d'état? Why?" Confusion shone through her eyes. "Why would your clan plan something like that?"

"The elders believed that an Uchiha was behind the Kyuubi's attack on the village since the Sharingan has an ability to control the beast," Itachi explained as Naruto leaned towards him. "The council ordered all members of the Uchiha clan to live in one section of the village."

Naruto frowned. "You mean to tell me that you guys didn't always live there? That they purposely isolated you people from the rest of the village? All because of what might be a possible reason?"

Itachi nodded and waited for the girl's reaction. Naruto chewed on her bottom lips and there were several emotions flashing through her eyes: sorrow, anger and maybe even pity. _What a strange child._ After what some of the members of his clan did to her and after what his brother put her through, she chose to feel sorrow for them.

"The members of my clan began to feel mistrust and felt isolated in the village as you guess," Itachi took a deep breath. "My father along with most of the other members of the clan began to hate the village and as a result they started to plan a coup d'état to overthrow Konoha."

The booth curtain swept open as the waitress came in with a tray filled with their orders. The waitress smiled warmly, placed the warm green tea in front of him before sliding the cake and watermelon milkshake to Naruto.

Stream rolled out of his drink, tickling his nostrils and Itachi felt the tension inside of him to be relieved. He wrapped his hands around the tea cup, took in a deep breath and sipped the tea while Naruto stirred her milkshake. Blue eyes seemed to be faded, almost like the girl was in another place and time.

"And how did you end up being the one committing genocide?"

Itachi kept his face blank, not willing for the young woman to see how much her words affected him. Genocide. For the good of the village he committed genocide. His clan meant little when one took into account of the number of lives that would be lost if the village underwent a civil war.

"My father wished for me to spy on the Hokage," he admitted—he stirred his tea. "I did not want a civil war to break out if my father was successful with his plans. If the clan had been able to accomplish their plans then another Shinobi World War would happen so I went to the Third. I told the Third Hokage about what my clan plans to do because I had no clue on how to fix the issue."

Naruto nodded. "Of course you didn't know, you were fourteen."

Itachi blinked and stared at the girl who gazed at him with sadness and understanding. He felt his lips twitched, feeling almost faintly amused at how the girl presumed to understand his dilemma at the time. Three years ago, the girl looked at him like he was a monster. Her eyes used to be filled with so much anger for what he put Sasuke through and now her eyes were filled with sympathy.

"The Third tried his hardest to find a peaceful solution with the clan," Itachi continued. "He tried negotiations with my father but my father refused to listen to the talks. At one point Shishui tried to use his sharingan to force the elders to change their minds but it failed. His eye was taken from him and Shishui entrusted his left eye to me. After that, Shishui committed suicide."

Tears began to leak out of Naruto's eyes and Itachi was at a loss on what to do with the girl. The pure anguish in her eyes was genuine as the blonde patted her eyes with the tissue offered by the café. _The emotional crybaby is always going to be there._ Itachi recalled the days of ANBU duty when the blonde cried for her bad luck in life.

"The village councilmember Danzo came to me one day and gave me one of two options," Naruto blinked her eyes. "I could let the Uchiha clan continue out the plans and let the whole clan be killed including me and Sasuke or I could assassinate the Uchiha clan before the coup takes place but spare my brother."

"What they made you do was wrong and I really want to punch that Danzo in the face for making you go through this hell," Itachi blinked as the blonde stood up from her seat. Her blue eyes were locked on him. "But what you put Sasuke through was inexcusable. There were many ways you could have dealt with him…but not that. You should have never made him think you are a monster."

"I don't want him to hate the village."

"Who cares about the village! The village can go and fuck themselves for all I care!" She yelled. "Sasuke wanted you to be by his side! He probably would have been less fucked up if you just told him the truth! If you just stuck by his side! He loves you and what you just told me is going to kill him."

"You plan to tell him."

"He deserve to know the truth."

* * *

"Where were you? Who was that man? We tried calling you!"

Her classmates had rush towards her with worried and concerned expressions. Naruto could not even bring herself to smile at her classmates—her eyes were locked on the disappearing figure of Itachi. She knew from the police that Tomura had been here and encountered her classmate, who seemed to be shaken from his own meeting with the man.

"That was my best friend's brother." Naruto slipped her hands into her pocket and stared up at the clear blue sky. _My doubts about Konoha is gone but I definitely cannot let Sasuke continue on his path._ The chipping birds and the blueness of the sky did not reflect the dilemma she was faced with: Does she enjoy the rest of her summer and act like the teenager she wanted to be? Or should she figure out what to do with the information given to her?

"Where were you?" Momo asked, knitting her eyebrows together.

"I was in a café having a talk with Itachi," she forced herself to smile. "I got lost with my talk that I forgot to inform you guys about it."

Her classmates glanced at each other and then looked at her. The disbelief and concern in their eyes told her they did not believe her words. She chewed the inner corner of her cheek, wishing not for the first time in her life that she grew up like they did. If Naruto grew up like them then this dilemma inside of her would not be so confusing because she would never have been a kunoichi first.

"You looked angry when you saw him," Mina commented gently. "Did something happen between you?"

 _If only you knew._ Naruto shook her head and stared at the water fountain. What was she going to do? There was no chance in hell she would return back to Konoha. She was not insane. The village treated her like dirt, made her feel like she never deserved to have the right to live and now she learnt they made a fourteen-year-old commit genocide.

She ignored the concern looks of her classmate and made her way to the water fountain. Taking a seat on the fountain steps, Naruto pressed her fingers against her temple. What should she be her choice? She had to find a way to bring Sasuke back to the right path. Just as she knew Sasuke would have done everything to protect her, she should do the same. Yet a part of her felt conflicted on what should be done.

 _He made it clear to you that you meant nothing to him._ A sinister part of her whispered in her mind, trying to lure her away from the thoughts. There was a throbbing pain on the wound Sasuke inflected her, reminding her of the action he took against her. He hurt her. He reminded her of how crappy her life was. Why should she save him? Why did she want to save him? Was it because of a promise made to Sakura? Or was it because of guilt?

' _Wouldn't it be worse if you just stood there and never did anything about it?'_

The words haunted her as she stared at the fountain. Would she be able to live with herself if Sasuke ended up becoming a criminal? Would her best friend still choose the path of loneliness and darkness if he knew the truth? If someone told him the truth then what would he do? A part of her believed he would simply ceased his madness and find his own happiness.

Yet another part of her knew he would destroy Konoha for putting his brother through this hell.

 _If the Uchiha clan was murdered for the good of the village then was it possible that they really allowed their allies to die?_ She felt like hurling as she recalled the way she used to say the village's oath with pride. Hokage. How could she used to dream to be a leader to a village willing to hurt the very people they swore to protect and defend? How could the Third live with himself whenever he saw Sasuke?

Was violence the only answer they had?

"Naru-chan, are you okay?" Momo asked gently, rubbing her shoulders. Naruto looked up and felt her throat dried up when she saw the worried expression on her friend's face. She opened her mouth to say the words yes but the words were stuck on her throat. All she could do was nod her heads and let the tears flow out.

"What's wrong Naru-chan?"

"Why is she suddenly crying?"

"Does it matter?"

Tsuyu wrapped her arms around her and rocked her back and forth, allowing her to muse in her turmoil. Bastard. Fool. Selfish. These were all the words Naruto wanted to use to describe the two Uchiha brothers. Why her? Why could they not let her come to a final decision in peace? She knew she could not let her friend continue to be lost. She knew she had to find a way to fulfil her promise because heroes keep their promise.

There had to be a way for her to keep to her promise without returning back to the Elemental Countries because Naruto refused to go back to a village that allowed this shit to happen.

"You don't need to lie to us Naru-chan, ribbit," Naruto blinked her eyes and her classmate stared at her with concern. "You don't need to pretend everything is alright around us. You can tell us anything."

 _I can't tell you that I learnt a councilmember was more willing to murder a whole clan than let the Third find a peaceful resolution._ Naruto nodded and stared at her concern classmates, feeling her stomach churned as she realized Itachi had barely been older than her and her classmates when they gave him the most difficult choice in his life. _A member of the council was more willing to take away someone's Kekkai Genkai than let them find a peaceful solution._

They were monsters to force Itachi to go through this hell.

* * *

"I came as soon as you send me the message. What's wrong brat?"

Naruto stared out at the sea as Kenji took a seat beside her. Hazel eyes shone with concern from the lack of response from his niece. All he could see was the absolute turmoil in her eyes. He knew from television that one of her classmates encountered a villain but Kenji doubt the girl was shaken from something like this. His eyes widened when he saw the tears streaming down his niece's eyes. _Did one of those punks hurt her?_ He wrapped his arm around her.

"Nearly eights years ago, a tragedy stuck Konoha," Naruto whispered, blue eyes locked on the waves. "In the dead of night, a whole clan was murdered except for one person: Sasuke. They told us that the murderer was a member of the clan and when I became Sasuke's teammate, I learnt the killer was his brother. They say Itachi went mad. Sasuke claimed his brother killed the clan for power and I believed him. We all believed in his words."

The girl choked and Kenji wanted to squeeze the girl to tell her not to cry in front of him. The emotional crap was not for him. He left the whole crying and comforting to Kumiko. His wife was the one who had gently told Eisuke why his dog would never come back when he was seven. He was good with advise but not emotions.

All he could do was keep quiet.

"I never questioned Sasuke or the village's words," Naruto placed her head on top of her knees. "I believed them when they say Itachi Uchiha was a mad man who murdered his clan for no reason but power. I refused to believe Eisuke when he claimed that Konoha would rather see your home destroyed for the soldiers because I thought the councilmembers and the Hokage wouldn't be so cruel. Now everything is fucked up."

Kenji stared at the sea. "The world had always been fucked up but what made you realize it really was cruel?"

"Itachi Uchiha contacted me," Naruto said dully. The waves stroked their feet and the smell of the salty water tickled their noses. "He wants me to bring his brother back to Konoha and I told him that I wouldn't even agree to it unless he told me the real reason for the murder of his clan."

 _If she believed in the words spoken by Konoha and by her friend then why did she question him?_ Kenji fixed his eyes on the blank-faced teenager. How did the girl end up thinking there was more to the attack? If it was eight years ago then Naruto would have been nearly eight. A child that would have not known better about the darkness of the shinobi world. The girl became a genin at the age of twelve as she informed him one time.

Until then she would have been innocent.

"What made you realize there was another motive to the massacre?"

"I used to be so jealous of Sasuke," Naruto admitted. She smiled at him but the wobbliness of her smile told him that the girl really was not okay. He cured under his breath and gave her a one armed hug. "I used to watch him whenever his brother came to pick him up. Itachi was always so gentle and loving when it came to him and I hated him for that. He had a brother who loved him and a mother who gave a shit about him while I had no one. I feel sick to my stomach to admit this but I was a little bit happy when his family was murdered because I thought finally someone was having a shitty life like me, someone was just as lonely as me…but everyone still loved him."

"You know you have us," Kenji reminded her.

Naruto did not smile at his words. "When I told my boss of the story of Itachi, they asked me a question that I never stopped to think about. Can a gentle boy really kill his family for power? She told me it would be such an easy thing to say to someone. She said it makes more sense if Itachi was trying to protect Sasuke. When he told me he wants my help to bring Sasuke back to Konoha, I knew something was up."

"Because it sounded more like a brother's plea."

"Yes," She twisted a lock of her hair against her finger. "If he asks me for help then I knew something is up. A heartless brother would never ask for help when it came to his brother and I saw the love he has for Sasuke…so I asked for the truth."

 _The observation skill must have come from her father._ Kenji poked his tongue to the side of his cheek as Naruto continued to look blankly at the sea. There was a sombre feel to the environment despite the sight of a few happy couple sitting twenty feet away from them. For a moment he felt an itch to go and get some rum as he tried to figure out how to deal with his niece's conflict.

"The truth makes me disgusted," Naruto choked out. "I knew from my first serious mission that shinobi were nothing but tools that can be discarded. It was always there in the back of my mind but I never thought the village would be so cruel to a person."

There was a temptation for Kenji to hunt down the Itachi boy and smack him in the head for putting his niece through so much conflict. A part of him wanted to murder the boy for hurting a member of his clan but Kenji held himself back from cursing the boy. Naruto needed to learn just how cruel the world could be. If not from experience then from the stories told by Itachi.

"Why is it hard for you to believe? They were cruel to you," Kenji picked up a pebble from the sand and tossed it up and down. "If they could be cruel to you then it is not a stretch they could be cruel to another person."

"They asked a fourteen-year-old to murder his own clan because they were planning to overthrow the government! They manipulated his love for his brother to accomplish their end goals!" Kenji threw the pebble to the sea and grabbed hold of his niece. He pushed her close to the chest, absorbing her cries and screams of anguish. "Instead of finding another peaceful resolution, those bastards decided genocide was the best answer! They made him murder his parents, his cousins, his clans member in front of his baby brother and they never took responsibility for their actions."

"Naruto…"

"How can he ask me to bring Sasuke back to a village that destroyed his family?" Kenji rubbed her back. "A huge part of me always felt guilt for not bringing Sasuke back to the village and letting him go through more suffering. The part of me that wants to be free from this guilt and move on to be happy knows that it is impossible until I fix the error."

"Why does it have to be only you?" Naruto blinked and the man growled. "I understand why you want to do anything for his happiness because a part of you always felt grateful for the big risk he took for you. But why must you bear such a huge burden? You might have been his teammate and you might have love him like a brother but it is not your duty to knock sense into him. That job should have been the village's job! When a child goes through something this traumatic, there should have been someone to check up on him. Someone to nurture and comfort him because only a fool would think he was fine."

"Itachi was a genius."

"A genius when it comes to tactics and anything shinobi related but that is where all his prodigy talent lay," he snarled. His head throbbed and Kenji wondered if it was wrong of him to spring an attack on his son to see how sharp his senses were. "The Elemental Countries likes to think the moment a shinobi gets his headband that he is an adult. They forget that there are certain things a child does not understand! Itachi Uchiha was not thinking logically when he put his brother through such a trauma."

"Uncle Kenji…"

"This is why they should never make a child a shinobi," Kenji rubbed Naruto's back, allowing himself to fade back into the memories of the war. "The trauma that Itachi went through as a shinobi meant that he was constantly dealing with it and no one bother to help him. If he was a prodigy then his father must have made his life hell if he ever tried to act out of line. The fact is: the world he saw growing up made him think that doing what he did to your teammate was reasonable. Two people paid the price for his actions: his brother and you."

Naruto did not deny his words.

"I don't know how he expects me to bring Sasuke back to Konoha," Naruto shook her head. "I cannot do it. I cannot go back to a village that would rather kill a whole clan then find another peaceful way. I don't understand how the hell Itachi could hold so much love for Konoha after the hell they put him through! I don't know what he is thinking of wanting Sasuke to go back to Konoha! The both of them deserve better than this."

"Then what are you planning to do?"

"I spent the last three hours thinking about it and I realized my words and actions were barely enough to touch him," Naruto tucked a strand of her hair. "And the same goes for Sakura. We might have had a bond with him and we care for Sasuke in our own ways but after hearing Itachi's story, I think it is his duty to tell him the truth. He made the mistake and he should be the one to fix it. When I think about it…Itachi also needs to go through some therapy—him and Sasuke."

"Are you going to tell him this?"

"After the camp," Naruto stared out at the ocean. "I know it sounds silly and maybe it seems silly but knowing the truth about the massacre cleared a lot of things in my mind. I feel guilty for giving up on my best friend, on my brother and for not accomplishing my promise…but now that I think about it: can I really bring him back? If I bring him back then who is going to help him through the trauma? Because I am too fucked up to deal with this shit."

Kenji snorted. "We are all fucked up."

"Sasuke says he wants to kill Itachi…says it was his life's mission but I doubt he can actually go through with it," Naruto closed her eyes. "Can you look at your brother's eyes and murder him in cold blood? I think he will hate himself and he will hate himself even more when he discovers the truth."

"Telling him the truth would kill him even more," Naruto blinked her eyes and Kenji scratched his chin. "Imagine spending your whole life thinking that your brother murdered your clan for power and then finding out the village he stayed in were the ones that ordered their deaths. Tell me, do you think Sasuke would never entertain the possibility of murdering the whole village for their actions? If Itachi told the whole world the truth then the Uchiha clan would be seen as monsters."

"So it is better for Sasuke to plan and murder his brother?"

"I think the fool should have told his baby brother the truth and that it would have been better if he had done it from the start," Kenji looked out at the sea. "If Itachi told his brother the truth then yes he would develop anger and maybe he would plot for revenge but if he stayed by his side and try to make the little shithead his love for the village then your teammate would be a different person."

Kenji looked up at the sky and sighed.

' _The world is filled with fools_ , _don't you think Reo-niisan?'_

* * *

A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter.


	37. Chapter 37

A/N: I want to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows.

* * *

The sky was blue and decorated with white, fluffy clouds scattered around the skyline with the morning sun peaking over the sky. If Naruto was a morning person, she would say that it was a perfect day and that today was going to be the perfect day.

Naruto scowled at the sight of the smiling Mina and Kaminari. The two teens had been chipper from the moment they entered the meeting area—eyes shining with excitement for what was about to come. She closed her eyes and attempted to tune out their excitement, hoping to get a few more minutes of shut eye.

"You stayed up the whole night." Shouto observed. The blonde snapped her eyes wide open at the sight of her friend standing beside her. He stood in front of her, eyebrows knitted together, with his blue duffle bag over his shoulder. "You should have slept earlier."

"I tried to sleep but I was too excited for today," She paused and flickered her eyes at their excited classmates. "Well maybe not as excited as them. I don't know how the hell they can be so happy this early in the morning."

"They slept properly."

 _I should have drunk milk last night to get some sleep instead of just laying in bed._ Naruto rubbed the back of her neck. She pressed the back of her neck, searching for the tension areas of her neck. Taking a deep breath, she twisted her neck and felt herself relax at the clear _crack_ sound produced. Mental note for her not to lie her head against the headboard.

She picked up her duffle bag from the floor and made her way to the back of the bus. Several staff members were tossing the bags to the back of the bus, organizing it to a point where all twenty-one bags could be fitted into. Naruto handed the orange duffle bag to the staff worker, who placed it at the top of the pile.

"Everybody line up!" Aizawa ordered. "Summer vacations may have started but none of you will be receiving days off."

Naruto shuffled to the front of the bus, taking her spot next to Shouto. To her left were Izuku and Ochako who beamed at her. The blonde forced herself to smile and wave at them. How could people be so cheerful this early in the morning? Was it really that important for her to sleep properly? It probably did not matter. As soon as they stepped into the bus, she was going to get a well-deserved nap.

"At this summer camp, we'll have you aiming for even greater heights—for _Plus Ultra_!"

"Yes, sir!"

"It's finally time for the training camp in the woods, huh?" Ochako swirled towards them, putting her hands behind her back and leaned close to Izuku.

"Y-Yeah! That's right! Uraraka!" Izuku waved his hands wildly as his cheeks grew to a bright shade of red at the proximity between them. Naruto smiled and wondered if she made the exact shade of red whenever she babbled her thoughts out loud to Shouto. She glanced at Shouto who knitted his eyebrows at the sight of their two classmates.

She smiled even wider.

"What's the matter, Deku-kun?" Ochako tilted her head to the side curiously and Izuku looked wildly at them.

"I-It's just the heat! The heat is a problem right, Naurto?"

" _Sure_ we can say heat is the problem," Naruto said, blue eyes twinkling with mischief. The prankster part of her wanted to tease the hell out of the two teens but she felt like being merciful towards them. She linked her left arm around the right arm of Shouto. The boy raised his eyebrow but the blonde just smiled tightly at him. "That is why I am sticking close to Shouto."

Ochako's mouth parted for a moment. Something flashed through her eyes and she recoiled, stumbling back and stuttering nervously before she began to clap her hands together. "It's time for training camp! Training camp! Training camp!"

Kaminari and Mina leapt to join their classmate, clapping their hands and chanting with her to the same unknown beat. Naruto smiled even wider and covered her mouth, trying to stop herself from laughing at the silliness of the situation. She was just so glad not to join in with this strange dance, not when she had no sense of rhythm.

"Is she alright?" Shouto asked; his eyes flashed with both concern and confusion.

Naruto smiled. "She is just excited."

 _Actually I think she really likes Izuku._ She glanced at Izuku and then back to her dancing classmate, who still had some redness in her cheeks. Naruto nodded. _Yeah she definitely likes Izuku._ It was nice to see someone having a crush for a change. Now Mina could tease Ochako about her crush and she could relish the joy of seeing someone else being flustered by the comments.

" _What?_ There are people in Class A taking extra classes?" Naruto twisted her head and scowled at the sight of Monoma standing behind them. Monoma shoved his hair back with vigour, eyes shining viciously as he grinned. "Does that mean you had people who failed the finals? What? Isn't that weird? Isn't that weird? Even though they are supposed to be way better than Class B?"

Naruto gritted her teeth and unlinked her arm from Shouto. She marched over to her fellow blonde, who gulped at the sight of her. _If you are so scared of me then why the hell are you acting like a little shit?_ She smiled tightly at the boy and swung her fist at him, earning winces from his classmates.

"If you are going to pick on us then you better be prepared for the consequence." The blonde turned her heel and stared at the other students of Class B. Naruto raised her eyebrow, waiting for another student to make one more comment about her friends' misfortune for not passing their practical exam.

Itsuka strolled over to her and picked up the unconscious boy. "Sorry about Monoma, Naru-chan."

"I feel more sorry for you, Itsuka-chan," Naruto jerked her head at the unconscious boy. "You have to deal with that piece of shit every day."

"He should have learnt his lesson not to provoke you guys." Itsuka said, sighing at the unconscious boy. She curled her fingers around Monoma's limp legs and proceeded to drag the unconscious boy to the bus, not bothering to even lift him up from the cold hard ground. Naruto winced as the boy's head kept hitting the pebbles on the ground.

 _I almost feel sorry for him._ Naruto twisted her head and returned to take her spot beside Todoroki. Her friend raised his eyebrow at her as if asking her if it was really necessary for her to punch the guy for his stupid comments.

She nodded.

"I made it clear to him that I wasn't going to deal with his bullshit," she shrugged. "Not my fault the bastard forgot the consequence."

Shouto regarded her for a moment before nodding his head. He flickered his eyes to the other members of Class B, who seemed to be fixated at the sight of them. Naruto turned to look at the classmate he was staring at. She tilted her head when one of the boys flushed a pretty shade of pink at her gaze.

 _Boys were strange._

"I almost forgot," Mineta panted. "The added addition of the 1-B girls on this trip…It's just like a baby buffet…"

Naruto chopped the boy on the back of his while Kirishima shook his head, not bothering to scold her about how it was unmanly for her to do this. Todoroki picked up the unconscious boy and tossed him over the shoulder, bicoloured eyes not showing any emotions.

If she was already having a headache from Mineta then she feared the migraine that was going to form when Mineta and Jiraiya were together in the camp.

* * *

"I was waiting for you people for the last hour!"

Naruto stepped off the bus, squinting against the brightness of the sun for a second until Kirishima tapped her by the shoulder. He pointed to their classmates who stood in the middle of the rest area. She nodded, placing her hands over the back of her head and made her way to the others.

Thick miles of forest and trees stretched out at the cliff beneath them. Everyone piled off, stretching their arms and legs with groans of relief and only to stop their groans at the sight of a white-haired man in front of them. Mineta zipped around them, searching everywhere for a rest room.

"Who is this?" Kirishima wondered as Jiraiya folded his arms against his chest.

The students glanced at their teacher, who did not seem one bit bother about the Toad Sannin annoyance about the lateness of the group. Aizawa strolled towards the man, clicked his heels together and turned towards the confused group of students.

"This is one of the people that is going to assist us with your training," Aizawa said as Jiraiya flickered his eyes towards her. The blonde felt her eyebrows twitched when her godfather locked his eyes on Shouto, whose shoulders barely touched hers. The annoyance in his eyes was not because of their lateness, it was because she was standing next to Shouto. "This is Jiraiya."

"Is he a pro-hero?" Kirishima asked, knitting his eyebrows.

"I never heard of him," Izuku muttered.

Mineta stopped running and twisted his head to look at the white-haired man. The joy lighting up in her classmate's eyes made Naruto shudder and she could feel a headache coming; it seemed like she was not the only one. Aizawa rubbed the sides of his head and glared at the two males, no doubt warning them about their future behaviour.

"How can you have not heard of Jiraiya-sama? He wrote the greatest book series of all time: Icha-Icha!" Mineta said, squeezing his legs together. He bowed slightly to the grinning white-haired man before resuming his cries for the bathroom.

"Icha-Icha… Naruto doesn't that mean he is your godfather?" Kirishima asked.

Several heads turned towards her, eyes flashing with disbelief and confusion at this information. She took a deep breath and nodded at her classmates, who twisted their heads to gawk at the man. They glanced at her and than back to Jiraiya, trying to make sense on how the man came to the trip. In their eyes, the man was nothing but a perverted writer.

How could he assist them?

"How can an erotic writer helper us become better heroes?" Iida asked, pushing his glasses up his nose. Several students nodded, looking deeply confused at their teacher.

Jiraiya flickered his eyes at her and looked almost deeply unimpressed at her lack of admittance about her previous occupation. Naruto chewed on her bottom lip. At one point during their trainings, her godfather pointed out she could not keep her past hidden from her friends. They deserved to know the truth and he asked her if she ever planned to them the truth.

' _Soon'_

She never exactly told him that soon meant maybe in two years when they graduated.

"Jiraiya-san may have some highly _inappropriate_ hobbies," Aizawa said, locking his tired red eyes on the white-haired man. Her godfather did not even bother to act ashamed for his work. "But let me reassure you that Jiriaya-san will be the one training you in the physical aspects of being a pro-hero and give you ideas on what to do with your quirks."

Naruto tuned her teacher out as he went on to explain what her godfather would be doing with them. Ero-Sennin already gave her a brief run down about what they were going to do in her training camp, warning her that he was not going to take it easy on her during the training camp. _What he put me through for the last two months was him going easy on me._ She shuddered to think what would be him going to the extreme.

She blinked her eyes at the sight of a black car being parked at the same area as them. _Was everyone taking a break here?_ Naruto chewed on her bottom lip and stared at her classmates. Her classmates seemed to be more enthralled with learning about their training regime then to notice the fact there was another car with them.

"Why is your godfather glaring at me?" Shouto asked; his eyebrows knitted together at the glare that Jiraiya had directed towards him.

She tilted her head and raised her eyebrows at Ero-Sennin, who tried and _failed_ miserably to act innocent. _What is it with every male guardian and their constant desire to glare at Shouto?_ Naruto could only give a weak shrug at her crush. "I don't know."

"Your godfather doesn't look like he is anything special, Whiskers," Bakugou commented from beside her.

The blonde regarded her classmate; blue eyes faded as she recalled her very first meeting with Jiraiya. If her godfather was not able to knock out Ebisu then she probably would have thought like Bakugou. The Toad Sage always had a goofy smile playing on his lips and his habits never gave the impression he took his work seriously.

' _That Icha-Icha was really exciting, cool and interesting.'_

Her desire to be trained by one of the strongest shinobi in the world made her sing praises for a book series she detested.

"If you can land a punch against Ero-Sennin during our training then you can say that," Bakugou blinked his eyes and Naruto fixed her eyes on her godfather. "I still hadn't landed a solid punch against him."

A pair of cloth launched at the two students, wrapping around their necks and forcing them to look at Aizawa. He folded his arms against his chest and looked deeply annoyed at the fact they were not focusing on him. Naruto widened her eyes and smiled sheepishly, hoping and praying her large eyes would be enough for him to look the other way.

Her teacher only faltered a little before glaring at them.

"Bakugou! Uzumaki! Pay attention! This is not the time for chitchat!" Aizawa barked, tightening the cloth's hold on them. The two students nodded and let out a sigh of relief when the man loosened the cloth's grip around their necks. "As I was saying there is no point for us to stop here without any reason."

"Where's the bathroom?" Mineta whimpered.

The doors to the car clicked open. Bright, fur lined boots hit the ground in succession with two sneakered feet dropping to the floor behind them. Naruto felt her eyes widened in horror when the sun's glint was cut off by bright, weirdly shaped head pieces—

"Yo, Eraser!" A sweet voice called out, bobbed brown hair came into view while bright blond hair flashed around the light.

"Long time no see," Aizawa bowed slightly at the two women.

"Lock on with these sparkling gazes!"

"Stingingly cute and catlike!'

"Wild, wild—"

"Pussycats!"

The two women beamed. Massive pawed gloves held their formation while a young boy stood off to the side, hands shoved into his pockets and a red horned hat tipped low over his eyes. _Pain. I can really feel the amount of pain inside of him._ Naruto fixed her eyes on the sullen boy, ignoring the whispers coming from her classmates. He reminded her of Inari with those sorrow filled eyes.

'… _You don't know a thing about suffering or loneliness or what my life is like!'_

The two boys did not look anything alike but Naruto knew from those angry eyes that the boy was like Inari. He was a child filled with so much grief and pain. A child who hated the world around him for taking one of the most precious people to him. Naruto just focused her eyes on him, drinking in those angry eyes directed at her.

"Why is he glaring at us?" Shouto asked.

Blue eyes softened. "He is not glaring at us or angry with us. He is just angry with the world and decided to take it out on us."

Shouto did not ask her what made her certain about the boy's feelings; he only stared at the boy as if trying to figure out what gave away the source of his anger. Naruto shook her head. _I knew the source of his anger because of Inari. I would have never known otherwise._ There were slight timbers of regret for her actions towards Inari. She might have helped Inari get over his anger and fear but there were things she should have never said to him.

Some of her words had just been too cruel to him because not everyone grew up in a place where no one gave a shit about her sadness.

"These are the pro-heroes who will be working with us during the camp, the Pussycats." Aizawa explained, keeping his eyes locked on the students.

"They are a four-person hero team who set up a joint agency," Izuku spluttered, eyes growing round in excitement. "They are a veteran team that specializes in mountain rescues. This year will be their twelfth working—"

The blond woman's paw slammed into Izuku's face, effectively cutting him out. Her face twisted, a little bit furious and Naruto grimaced, taking another step closer to Shouto's side. "I'm eighteen at heart!"

 _Someone doesn't want to admit they are in their thirties._ Naruto stared at the furious hero who made it a point to remind her classmate that she was eighteen in spirit. She flickered her eyes to Jiraiya who seemed to stare at the scene with sadness and amusement. Was her godfather remembering his own genin team? Did her own father make a silly mistake and insulted a woman by her age? Jiraiya told her stories about her father but he never told her about these small things in his missions.

He just reminded her of how cool her father was and how in love her parents were with each other.

"Greet them, everyone."

"Nice to meet you!" Everyone chorused.

The young boy that had came with the Pussycats kept his hands tight in his pockets, silent as he glared at them. _What happened to him? Who made him become so angry and hurt with the world around him?_ He glanced at her, finally locking his eyes on her and Naruto just gave him a large smile.

He balked for a moment, eyes narrowing and then he jerked his head to the side, pulling his hat down. Naruto curled her lips as she recalled of Inari. Sweet Inari who hated her because of how much she was willing to go the distance to protect the home he clearly loved. Inari did not understand her actions until she saved him from those thugs. She wondered how the boy was. He must be eleven now? Or was he twelve?

It felt so long ago since her mission in the Land of Waves.

"We own this whole stretch of land here," The brown-haired hero pointed towards the valley in front of them. "All of you will be staying at the foot of that mountain."

"So far _!"_

Naruto tilted her head and looked at the area the hero pointed at. _If our lodge is over there then why the hell are we here? Aizawa-sensei said there is no point to stop here without any reason._ Her eyes widened and she jerked her head at Ero-Sennin. The man kept his expression blank but the clear joy in his eyes confirmed her suspicions. She swore under her breath while her classmates looked at each other with horror, clearly understanding what was going to take place.

"Let's go back to the bus," Sero suggested, sweating nervously. The boy tried to make a break for the bus but Jiraiya grabbed him by the shirt, effectively halting the plan. Everyone sweated and looked at her godfather with wide eyes. They gulped and took another step back, hoping and praying they would be able to get away from here.

"I placed a seal on the bus that would stop anyone of you from entering," her godfather declared, dropping Sero to the ground.

Her classmates gulped, looking at the man like he was a monster. Aizawa looked almost mildly impressed at the fact her godfather had enough foresight to put a lock against the students.

"Right now," Mandalay purred. "It's 9:30 a.m. If you are fast…maybe around noon?"

"The first one will come at 10:30am," Jiraiya input, fixing his eyes on Naruto.

"If the first kitty get here by that time then the kitty will get a reward, but the kitties who don't make it by 12:30 won't get any lunch."

 _Do you really have that little faith in me?_ Naruto grumbled as she launched herself to the top of the railing while her classmates sweated at their words. The blond hero grinned viciously, claws sliding out as she placed her hands against the ground beside the bus. Naruto crackled when her classmates let out screeches of terror.

Swinging her head around, Naruto gave Jiraiya a thumbs up and allowed herself to be swept by the tidal wave

 _I will get there by 10:00am_

* * *

"Naruto…can you get off me?"

"Sorry!"

Todoroki felt his lips twitched upwards when the blonde jumped off his chest. Redness decorated her cheeks as she tried to explain herself to him and Shouto wondered why his friend was trying to explain when he already knew the reason. He shook his head at her and pushed himself up before dusting the dirt off his pants.

He scanned the area as his classmates pushed themselves off the ground, rubbing their heads as they did so.

The forest looked harmless at first glance with how lush the trees looked but Shouto felt slightly weary. The trees loomed over them and the fact they gave them such a time limit informed him about the plans to make things more difficult.

"Wanna bet they are going to make our lives more difficult?" Naruto asked; blue eyes fixated on the trees.

Shouto shook his head. "It is a losing bet."

"No fun."

He opened his mouth to explain himself only to close it when he saw the twinkle in his friend's eyes. _Of course she is messing with me._ Whenever Naruto's eyes twinkled with mischief then it meant that the girl was joking with him.

"Since it is private land, you can use your Quirks as you wish!" The heroine called out from above them. "You have three hours! Come to the facility on your own two feet! After getting through…The Beast's Forest!"

Everyone twisted their bodies to look at the forest.

"The Beast's Forest?" Midoriya repeated.

"That name sounds like it came right out of Dragon Quest!" Kaminari groaned. Shouto grimaced and stole a glance at the blond-haired girl. His friend crackled her fist, rubbed the back of her neck and stared at the forest with weariness.

"It could be worse," Naruto pointed out, helping Jirou up. "It could be called the Forest of Death."

Several of her classmates balked at her words but Shouto just eyed his friend, noticing the slight nostalgia in her eyes. _Is she remembering her first home?_ Being a former kunoichi must have meant his friend had done missions in a dangerous forest before. It meant out of everyone here, she was the best prepared for what was about to come.

"Now you just want to scare us, Naruto," Kirishima grumbled. "There is no use complaining. We just have to go."

Naruto shrugged her shoulders and grinned. "Since we have to go…why don't we see who is going to be the first person to get out of here? Loser has to do whatever the winner says!"

"You are on, Naruto!" Kaminari called out.

Shouto sighed and sprinted to the forest, ignoring the cries of his classmates.

Even though he knew Naruto could easily beat them, there was no way he could take the chance that one of the perverts would win. He did not want to see his friend getting harassed by either Mineta or even Kaminari; all because the girl just wanted to prove herself to everyone.

* * *

A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter.


	38. Chapter 38

**A/N: I want to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows as well as everyone that reviewed.**

* * *

 _Could they not have send so many of these beasts?_

Naruto grabbed Mineta from underneath the claw while Bakugou slammed his fist against the beast's head, tearing it apart by a million pieces. She grimaced and rolled over as the rocks that made up the beast crumbled around them. If it was not for the fact Naruto would feel guilty for leaving the boy in trouble even if her classmate loved to peek on her.

"How many more are there?" Ochako panted, wiping the sweat off her eyebrow.

"My clones are still not done demolishing them so I will say quite a lot." Naruto grumbled. She glanced down at her smiling classmate who had his eyes fixed on her chest. Naruto took a deep breath and tossed her classmate to the sky. Kaminari slid through the ground, hands stretched out in the air to grab his friend.

"You mean there is more of them?" Kaminari grumbled. "You sure you made enough clones to destroy these things?"

"I made more than a hundred clones," Naruto pressed her two fingers against each other and summoned several more clones. She glanced at Shouto, who was only a few meters ahead of her. The younger boy panted, wiped the sweat off his forehead as Izuku slammed his own fist against the beast. "Maybe I need to speed things up."

"You are using clones who also have your monstrous super strength," Kirishima yelled. "How can you do any better than that?"

The blonde just offered a smile as her clones surrounded her; ready to help her with the jutsu. _How many years has it been since I used the Rasengan?_ The chakra inside of her swirled around, forming the blue spiral her father was so famous for. Several of her classmates stopped what they were doing and just stared at the Rasengan in her hands.

"What the hell is that? That looks so cool!" Kaminari jumped on top of the beast. His hair stood up as blue lightening crackled in his fingertips. He pressed the fingers against the beast's head, not just destroying the beast but also heading towards the rest of their classmates. Luckily for them, Momo created some insulated shoes during their battle across these beasts.

"This is called the Rasengan," Naruto smashed the ball of energy against the beast. Gusts of air swept her hair back, allowing her to enjoy the slight taste of fresh air. She pressed her feet together and flipped herself back to the ground.

"It would have been useful earlier, Naruto!" Kirishima yelled.

"Because I can only make fourteen of these babies in one day," Naruto retorted. "This thing uses more energy than my shadow clones."

 _It used to be a lot less but my chakra control has improved to a point where I can make more than ten Rasengan._ Naruto took a deep breath while her clones charged after the beast. She rubbed the sides of her head as the memories of her clones flooded through her mind. Images of the furious beast flashed before her eyes, their furious eyes glaring at her clone whenever they tried to take them down.

 _I doubt I will be able to get to the lodge by 12pm—not when my friends are struggling to defeat these things._

* * *

The birds chirped a loud song in the distance.

The afternoon sun was hanging high over the heavy foliage of trees. Long shadows swayed as heavy feet trampled over the earth, several bodies slowly coming into the clearing with dragging arms.

"Oh, you're finally here, meow!" Pixie Bob perked up, several feet from them at the entrance to a large building. She popped her paws on her hips.

"That took some time," Mandalay mused beside a silent Aizawa and a curious Jiraiya. All of them watched the students filed in slowly into the clearing. "But strangely enough you have gotten here earlier then we expected."

All of class 1-A filed into the clearing. Uniforms were tattered, stained with dirt and grime. A few of the students had their hands over each other while even a smaller few were being carried by Naruto's clones. As soon as they reached the clearing, the clones dropped the students to the ground and popped themselves out of existence.

"We have got Uzumaki-san to thank," Iida adjusted his cracked glasses and gestured to Naruto with his head. He had his arm around the girl, a tired but grateful smile played on his lips. "She cleared most of the incoming beasts."

Jiraiya raised his eyebrow at his goddaughter. "You couldn't leave them behind to get here first, huh?"

"Those that break the rules are trash but those who would abandon their friends are worse than trash." Naruto stared at her exhausted classmates; all of whom looked like they were ready to pass out from exhaustion. She probably would have passed out from exhaustion too if it was not for her large energy reserves. "I was taught better than to abandon my friends…even if one of them makes it a habit to try and grope me."

Jiraiya stared at her for a good couple of seconds; his dark eyes not expressing how he felt about her quoting Kakashi. _Does he think I still regret coming here? Does he think I still miss Konoha?_ It was hard for her to miss the village that not only abused her but also decided the fates of Sasuke's family. For those reasons, she could never miss her home but it never meant she never learnt any valuable lessons from Kakashi. He might have favored Sasuke more but Naruto would never deny how his teamwork lessons were embedded into her heart.

"Don't regret it," Mineta declared before prompting hitting the ground.

"Who cares about the groping! How the hell can you say it will take us three hours?" Satou yelled. "Even with Naruto's clones and that crazy technique of hers, we passed the time limit."

"Sorry," Mandalay winked at them. "That's the time it would have taken us."

"You were trying to boast about how much better you are," Satou sunk down to the ground and rubbed his stomach.

"I'm hungry…" Kirishima groaned. "I'm gonna die."

 _Don't remind me of food._ Naruto looked down at her stomach, pulling a face as she recalled how Aunt Kumiko tried to convince her to bring some extra food for the trip. _I thought they wouldn't do anything to us so I refused the offer. I really should have known better._ Her stomach rumbled and the blonde felt like burying her head under the ground with how several of her classmates glanced at her.

"But honestly I thought it would be longer," Pixie Bob giggled. "You guys didn't have as hard a time beating my earth beasts as I thought you would! You guys are great…especially…"

Pixie Bob made a grand gesture to the group in front of her. Bakugou scowled, massaging his arm and a tiny scowl playing on his lips. Shouto had his eyes locked on Iida and Naruto, no emotions showing through his eyes. Izuku looked up in surprise. "You five! Were you able to act without hesitation because of your experience?"

Pixie Bob licked her lips and suddenly launched herself at them. "I'm looking forward to where you will be in three years! I call dibs!"

The hero hissed at them, Naruto let go of Iida and raised her arms as the woman tried to mark them. "Why the hell is she calling dibs on me too?"

"It means you got an admirer, Naru-chan!" Jiraiya teased.

 _If I wasn't so busy being attacked by this crazy lady, I will show you what it means to be admired._ Naruto flickered her eyes to the four members of the group. Bakugou had a huge scowl on his face as he yelled at the woman to get away from him. Iida looked scared for his life, not understanding what was happening to them. Izuku looked slightly shock but the fear in his eyes told her that he also did not like the attention. Shouto also had his arms raised in defense.

"Mandalay, has she always been like that?" Aizawa asked slowly.

The heroine sighed. "She is a little desperate since she is, well, you know, getting to that age…"

"Speaking of age—" Izuku started, only to be cut off as Pixie-Bob lurched past Shouto and smashed a paw over his mouth.

" _What about it?"_

 _How many times must it go through his head that he must never mention her age? The woman doesn't want to be reminded that her clock is ticking._ Naruto sunk down to the ground and rubbed the sides of her head, trying to ease her growing headache. She probably would not this exhausted if she had some water to drink. The use of her shadow clones and the Rasengan had depleted her levels but not to the point she was at the same level of her classmates.

It still did not mean she could not help but feel exhausted.

"I-It's been bothering me for a while," Izuku stammered out, he pointed his finger to the boy beside Mandalay. "But whose child is that?"

The boy glowered at them, his eyes filled with so much anger and hurt that Naruto felt her heart ached. Naruto blinked her eyes when she saw Todoroki looming over her, his right hand stretched out to her. Tearing her eyes away from the boy, Naruto grabbed Shouto's hand and pulled herself up.

"This is the first time I have ever seen you this exhausted from using your quirk."

"The combination of Shadow Clones and Rasengan meant that I used up a lot of energy." Naruto stared down at her hands, where the scratch marks made by Pixie-Bob seemed to have started to fade away. She felt her eyebrows twitched when she felt a familiar killer intention. Twisting her head, the blonde raised her eyebrow at Jiraiya.

He gestured to her hand and Naruto blinked before looking down at her hands. She felt her cheeks slightly heat up when she saw she had interlinked her fingers against Shouto's hands. _Why am I blushing for the silliest things? I know I like him but it doesn't mean I can act like this._ She unlinked her fingers, not noticing the confused look from her friend.

"Him?" Mandalay smiled calmly. "Oh, he is not one of ours if that is what you were thinking. He is my nephew. Come on, Kouta. Greet everyone. You will be with them for the week."

Kouta's scowl deepened, hat casting a shadow over his face. Naruto fixed her eyes on the boy, staring deeply into his eyes. _I doubt anything I will say to him would open his heart to me or the others._ While Inari had been hostile to her and her team, he did not look like a tiny ferocious animal ready to attack them. This kid looked like he was ready to attack anyone who got close to him.

"Oh, um, I'm Midoriya from U.A High School's hero course," Izuku offered his hand, bending down slightly. "Nice to meet you—"

Kouta's fist reeled back, slamming straight into Izuku's groin.

 _The kid got no problem showing everyone here that he is not afraid to attack us and Izuku should have known better than to go to a kid that looks like he won't have any problem attacking us._ Naruto grimaced as Izuku wheezed, crumping to the floor in a pale mess. Most of the boys grimaced, looking at the crumpled boy with pity.

"That Midoriya reminds me just like _him_ ," Jiraiya muttered.

Naruto perked her ears up, looking at the white-haired man with curiosity. Her godfather looked far away, almost like he was in a whole different dimension. The fondness in his eyes spoke volumes of the memory being played in his mind as being humorous and Naruto wondered if it would be wrong to ask her for the story. Had her father also been as clueless as Izuku? Because the blonde wanted to understand how Izuku could not have read the atmosphere.

"Midoriya-kun!" Iida rushed to the crumpled boy, holding Izuku in his arms as he glared at the young boy walking away from them. "You brute of a nephew! Why would you do that to Midoriya's scrotum?"

Kouta swung his head over his shoulder. His eyes narrowed, sharp and unforgiving for someone his age. "I don't intend to hang out with bastards who want to become heroes!"

"Bastards?" Iida squeaked. "Just how old are you?"

 _Why can't anyone of you see the kid is in a world of pain? He is a result of years of pain and loneliness._ Naruto hovered her hand over her stomach, eyes locked on the feral boy in front of her. A happy little boy would never dare do something like this, but a boy filled with so much anger and hurt was capable of doing a lot of things. It seemed like not even the support of his family member was enough to ease his pain.

"Precocious brat," Bakugou sighed, looking faintly amused by the whole thing.

Shouto glanced at him. "Isn't he kind of like you?"

"What? Not at all!" Bakugou scowled and strided towards Shouto. "Anyway, shut up, you good-game bastard!"

"He does have Explosive Head's scowl."

"Shut up, Whiskers!"

* * *

" _Thanks for the food!"_

Chatter filled the wood boarded mess hall. Tantalizing scents wafted up into the air, the lingering _pop_ of food frying in oil and the _clank_ of utensils in use. Plates were piled high with mountains of different meals—heavy pots of rice waited to be dished out for seconds, thinly sliced cuts of crispy katsu and so many other foods.

Naruto licked her lips, closed her eyes as she shoved the rice into her lips. She let out a moan, earning a slight laugh from her friends and a strange look from Todoroki and a few other boys. Food. Glorious food, which was not as tasty as her ramen but it was just as good.

"Really? So the girls' room is a normal size?"

"Are the boys in a big room?"

"Your godfather really has his eyes fixed on Todoroki-kun," Tsuyu commented, eyes fixed on Jiraiya. Naruto twisted her head to look at her godfather, who seemed to be focused on Midoriya now. If she didn't know her godfather had the habit of glaring at Todoroki for even being near her. "He seems to have notice too."

"Don't know what you are talking about, Tsuyu-chan." Naruto denied, ducking her head as her ears flushed pink.

"Your face is pink."

Naruto groaned as Todoroki twisted his head to look at her, bicoloured eyes lingered on her pink cheeks. She willed the blush to go away because god knew she was afraid what her mouth was going to say to him. There was no way she could let him know her feelings when she had no clue what he felt for her. If he rejected her then she had no idea how she should act around him.

"Are you sick? Because you shouldn't have eaten so much food," Todoroki advised her. Tsuyu raised her eyebrows, her lips barely showed the tiny glimpse of amusement. _Glad someone finds some humour about my feelings._ She just nodded at him, muttered the quiet words he was correct before going back to eating her food.

"The food is really amazing," Kirishima shoved another chopstick full of rice. "You can't blame Naruto for eating so much."

"And I am starving from making so many clones." Tsuyu and Ochako raised their eyebrows, not looking one bit fooled by her words. Shouto nodded, looking thoughtful for a brief moment before offering her his own bowl of food.

She blinked.

"You are offering me food?"

"You're hungry aren't you?" He looked down at his bowl. "I am already full."

 _I don't know whether to be happy that he cares or be slightly annoyed at how blind he is to my feelings._ Naruto stared at the food and then to his curious eyes. She forced herself to take the bowl, earning giggles from Ochako and the shaking head of Jirou and Momo. How could she even know if he really likes her? She tilted her head, trying to imagine herself confessing her feelings like Sakura did with Sasuke.

' _I really like you.'_

She pulled a face at the thought. The stuttering and blushing thing was definitely not for her. Was there any way for her to confess her feelings without making herself seem like idiot? _I can try to go and do it like Ino but I don't feel comfortable doing it in front of people._ Naruto stared down at the food, wishing the food would gve her a clue on how to confess her feelings.

"Naruto?"

The blonde smiled at Shouto and took the food while the male members of their class shook their heads at him, mouths curled up in amusement. Only Mineta glared at her friend, his eyes filled with so much envy that Naruto felt like throttling him. What was the point of the boy being jealous when there was nothing between them? Beside he also had an interest in Momo and god knew her friend was not happy with the attention.

"Thank you Shouto."

Tsuyu patted her back, eyes glinting with sympathy while Ochako flickered her eyes from her to Todoroki. Her own eyes flashed with slight worry as if she also wondered if Izuku would just be as blind as their classmate. _I am starting to think all boys are blind._ Naruto pulled a face as she recalled Hinata's attempts of confessing her feelings to Kiba.

"You really need to make it clear, Naru-chan," Tsuyu locked her eyes on Shouto. "He is a blind as a bat."

The blonde groaned. "Is it that obvious?"

"It has been obvious for a long time now." Naruto sighed and placed her hands against her head, ignoring the sympathetic looks from her classmate. _If everyone knew then did he know? If Shouto knows then why the hell is he not saying anything to me?_ She shook her head. There was just no way her friend would be able to keep it from her. He was just too blunt to keep it a secret but he did also have the habit of being caring.

It would not surprise her if he never said it because Shouto was really caring.

"Are you sure he doesn't know?"

Tsuyu nodded. "Yup because only he can think all your blushes is due to you being sick."

 _Well that means I have more time to figure out what to do._ Naruto glanced at Jiraiya and wondered if she should try to take a page from his books. Her cheeks flushed a darker shade of red as she recalled how some of the confessing scenes in the books. A tickle of blood came out of her nose and Naruto furiously rubbed her nose. She vigorously shook her head, erasing the images from her head.

 _I really should ask Aunt Kumiko on how to make things more obvious to Shouto._

* * *

"How the hell did Naruto live in this country? This place is too loud!"

Hinata chewed on her bottom lip as Kiba glared at the strange machines zooming through the streets. From talking with some of the civilians, they realized the city they arrived to was a city called Osaka. The people here looked so different from each other and Hinata understood why her friend loved living in Japan. If she could blend in this city then so could Naruto.

"It is because she got years to adapt to this place." Shino flickered his eyes to the civilians, his eyes lingered on the women with butterfly wings. Akamaru barked before sniffing the orange kimono shirt on Kiba's hands. The dog twitched before shaking his head.

"Akamaru says that Naruto is not in this city."

"The school must be in a different city," Shino commented as the three of them pulled out the map that they brought in the bookstore with the others. All the teams had split up, deciding that everyone took a different city to look for their missing friend. She chewed on her bottom lip, pulled out the pen from her pant's pockets and crossed out the city in the map.

"We should start asking people about the city," Hinata suggested. Kiba opened his mouth to argue but the girl narrowed her eyes, daring the boy to argue with her. Three years ago she probably would never have the courage to talk to Kiba like this but Naruto was important to her. Her friend had been missing for the last three years and there was no way of her knowing if Naruto was happy.

She wanted to see Naruto.

She needed to know if her best friend had the happiness that she deserved.

If Naruto was truly happy then Hinata would go against the others because Naruto would have done the same for her.

* * *

 **A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter.**


	39. Chapter 39

A/N: I want to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows.

* * *

"I miss bathing in the hot springs!"

Naruto tipped her head back, breathing in the stream and stretched her back. The tension in her body seemed to be fading away and it would not be long before she turned into jello. She flickered her eyes to Momo, who was tucking her hair up into a bun before entering the hot springs.

"It feels so good," Mina sighed. "It almost makes up for those beasts."

"Yes it is," Hagakure agreed. Water splashed from where she slid into the bath. "The training camp is really the best."

"Right now," Naruto looked up at the night sky. "Tomorrow is going to be even more worse since the training camp will actually start."

 _If I know Ero-Sennin as well as I do then he is going to drive them nuts with the taijutsu._ Naruto cracked her neck and flickered her eyes to the wall that separated the girls from the boys. Should she put a seal on the wall? Knowing Mineta, he would put some effort into trying to peak on them and knowing Ero-Sennin, he might encourage the boy to get some idea for his next book.

 _Then again, he might say no because Ero-Sennin had been acting so overprotective over me._ Naruto grimaced when she recalled how the man glared at Shouto. Did he not realize there was nothing going on between them? She might really _like_ Shouto but the boy seemed to be completely oblivious when it came to her feelings. There was nothing for the man to worry about.

"You know we should tell stories!" Mina said excitedly. "Why don't we go around and say who we think is the cutest boy in the class?"

"If we did that then we might faint staying long in the bath," Momo said thoughtfully. "It would be a shame if anyone fainted because of it."

"But it will be nice to know everyone's opinion," Naruto flickered her eyes to Ochako and grinned. "So Ochako-chan…what do you think of Izuku?"

Ochako flushed pink, hid her face behind her hands and furiously shook her head. Mina giggled, her caramel eyes twinkled with joy at the latest gossip. _I am sorry Ochako-chan but I don't want to be interrogated by Mina-chan._ It was bad enough everyone in the class knew about her feelings towards Shouto but it would be even worse if she got confronted by their classmate.

"I-I don't know what you are talking about, Naru-chan." Ochako poked her fingers together and puffed her cheeks. "Deku and I are just friends."

"You like him!" Mina squealed.

Ochako flushed an even brighter pink while their classmate looked at her with hearts in her eyes. Tsuyu shook her head, shooting an unamused look at her. Naruto shrugged her shoulders, offering her friend an apologetic smile for throwing the other girl under the bus. If things were easier or if she knew exactly where she stood with Shouto then maybe she would not mind being teased.

"What about Naru-chan? Do you like Todoroki-kun?" Hagakure asked and Naruto swore that if the girl was visible, she would be grinning at her.

Several pairs of eyes turned to her, waiting for her to confess her feelings about her friend. Naruto chewed on her bottom lip, slid herself back into the water and proceeded to dunk her head. _I should have known that someone would care more about my love life._ She pushed her head up to the water and stared at her curious classmates.

 _If everyone can see my feelings then there is no point for me to deny it._

"I really like Shouto," Naruto admitted, stealing a glance at the wall. She chewed on her bottom lip, remembering the plush fox he won for her. The concern look in his eyes whenever she felt down. She felt herself smile even more when she recalled all the times he comforted her and complimented her. Naruto tucked a strand of her hair. "It is really hard not to like him."

"You love him." Mina clapped her hands.

 _Love._

Naruto stared wide eyed at her classmate and opened her mouth to protest. Liking Shouto was different from being in love with him. They might be friends. He might be her closest male friends but it was just too soon for her to say she was in love with him. Did she even know what it meant to be in love? She could not imagine becoming like Sakura and acting so different with Shouto and the others.

She felt so comfortable being around Shouto and she did not even feel a desire to try and impress him.

" _Walls are meant to be climbed over! You have to go plus ultra!"_

Naruto felt her eyebrows twitched at the sound of the shrill, frenzied cry of her male classmate.

"It is Mineta."

"He is doing it, again?" Ochako cried, shooting down lower into the bath.

"How detestable!"

"Todoroki-kun is going to try and stop Mineta," Mina declared, grinning at Naruto. "As long as Naru-chan is in the Hot Springs, Todoroki-kun will prevent him from staring at us."

"He does it because he cares for all of us." All the girls raised their eyebrows at her, looking unconvinced at her words. _As much as I want Shouto to like me in that way, I doubt he stops Mineta because of me._ She clenched her hands into a fist. _Besides even if he did those things for me, he won't be able to stop Mineta without freezing everyone with him._ Shouto was a lot of things but there was no denying the fact he was careful about his quirk use.

"Didn't he freeze Mineta before he could even grope you? He never did that for any of us."

She could not argue with that.

A bright red cap popped up from the top of the wall. Naruto blinked, tilting her head to the side before sliding herself out of the water. She wrapped herself around a towel and waited to see what was going to happen. Kouta peered over the ledge, shoving at the barely peeking top of Mineta without any remorse. "Before learning to be a hero, you need to learn about being human."

Mineta let out a garbled, pained war cry from the other side of the wall. A loud grunt, followed by a splash echoed back. Kouta glared down at the other side before he turned to head down the latter.

"You rock, Kouta!" Mina gushed, raising her fist and naked body into the air.

 _I have a bad feeling about this._

The boy froze. Naruto stood up from the water as Kouta's eyes went wide and his jaw dropped. _Is an eight-year-old too young to be considered a pervert?_ Blood gushed out of his nose and he stumbled back on the later. Naruto felt her eyes grew wider as she realized what was going to happen to the boy. She knotted her towl around her body while her friends stared at her in surprise. "Naru-chan?"

"The kid is going to fall!" Naruto yelled as Kouta let out a garbled noise, toppling over the edge of the massive wall. "He is not going to be able to survive a fall like that!"

She pressed her feet together, bent her knees and jumped to save the boy.

"Naru-chan!"

Naruto reached to the top of the wall, her hands nearly able to touch the boy but she was just slightly too late. The boy seemed to be tumbling over to the boy's side of the wall. Naruto landed on top of the wall, her tanned hands clutched tightly to the towel.

"N-Naruto!"

Naruto focused her eyes on Kouta, scanning from the distance to see for any lethal injuries. A bit of blood dribbled from his nose above his upper lip, normal considering that he had seen a couple of naked girls. The tufts of his hair seemed to be cradled in a scared hand. Naruto followed the scarred hand and paused, meeting round, wide green eyes that seemed to ready to pop out.

 _Since when did Izuku get muscles?_ Naruto allowed her eyes to stare at Izuku's bare chest. She blinked and blinked her eyes as realization drawn into her. She was suddenly grateful for the fact a towel was covering the lower half of his body.

Izuku seemed frozen, eyes blown wide as a dark blush began to colour his face.

Naruto felt her cheeks darkened when she caught sight of the other members of the boys. Some of the boy were flushed red with embarrassment, others seemed to be gawking at her. Shouto was seated on top of a rock, his eyes blown wide open at the sight of her. Kirishima stared at her in disbelief while Bakugou seemed to be made out of the stone.

Jiraiya was nowhere in sight.

 _Please tell me that I am still wearing a towel._

Naruto flickered down at her towel and relaxed her shoulders. Right, she was fine then.

"Since you got Kouta then I should go down now," Naruto smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of her neck.

 _I pray we didn't scar the kid for life._

* * *

" _How was the first day of camp? Your uncle refuses to admit that he misses you and that he wants to know how your first day of camp went."_

Naruto stared at the text, her lips curled into a tiny smile at the message her Aunt Kumiko sent her. _It sounds like Uncle Kenji._ She touched the message, curding the phone close to her heart. It really made her happy to know they cared about her even if Uncle Kenji did not find it easy to tell them about how much he cared each other.

"What were you thinking?"

The blue eyed girl tore her eyes away from her phone and stared at Shouto, who looked at her with eyes filled with fury and concern. She raised her eyebrow and pursed her lips. There was no need for her to ask why he seemed to be slightly irritated with her or why he was concern. The fact he found her alone while everyone else was asleep told her that he did not want to confront her in public.

"The kid needed to be rescued," Naruto slipped her phone back into her pockets and stared at Shouto. "It was not like I thought, oh wait, let me put on a shirt and pants to save the kid."

"Your towel could have fallen off when you were jumping." Shouto looked away from her and the blonde felt her lips twitched upwards when she heard the slight squeak in his voice. _I never expected him to act like this._ She stared at her friend. "Didn't you think before you act? If it fall off then your whole body would have…"

"…been exposed?" He jerked his head downwards and Naruto shook her head. "I put on the towel so I did think about it but it wouldn't surprise anyone. I mean I did make the sexy jutsu as a way…"

"Sexy Jutsu?"

Naruto grinned and debated about whether to show the jutsu to her friend or not. _It would let you know if he likes you or any girl in that way._ She furiously shook her head, cheeks flushed pink as she realized what the jutsu would also entitled. Why did she have no problem with her modestry in front of the others? But when it came to Shouto, she rather not do it.

 _Because Shouto is different._

"It is a technique where I slightly exaggerate my body proportions," Naruto gestured to her body, where her shirt clung to her curves. Shouto flickered his eyes from her chest to her face; his eyes revealed nothing. "And I might be naked in the jutsu but the important bits are covered with mist."

"Why?"

His eyes revealed no emotions but Naruto could hear the slight desperation and anger in his voice.

"I made it as a prank against one of my teachers," Naruto smiled softly, recalling all the times she pulled the trick against Iruka-sensei. "Whenever he tried to send me back to class or ask me to use my quirk, I would pull it out and call him a pervert because it only works on perverts."

"Doesn't it make you a pervert if you created the technique?"

Naruto blinked and tilted her head at the question. _I have never thought about it in that way._ Was she a pervert because she created this technique? But it was not like she made a male version of the technique although she did have thoughts about it. After all, a male version would be perfect for distraction when it came to females.

"The two of you shouldn't be awake at this hour."

Naruto twisted her head and raised her eyebrow at the boy. Without the hat, Kouta's hair looked wild with how spiky it looked. His sock cladded feet stood a couple of feet away from them, a flashlight hanging at one side and a pair of keys hanged on his hand.

The blonde grinned. "Isn't it past your bedtime, kid?"

The boy did not falter at her smile, only glared at her with so much annoyance and distaste that Naruto really was reminded of Inari. She felt like ruffling his hair, trying to see if his hair felt just as soft as it looked. "I _live_ here and Mandalay wanted me to check if all of you are sleeping. The two of you are supposed to be sleeping. What are the two of you doing?"

He flickered his eyes to her and Shouto, eyes lingering on the closeness between them.

"This isn't the place to do those things!"

Shouto knitted his eyebrows and looked at her in confusion while Naruto felt torn between laughing at how naïve the kid was or to be embarrassed that he thought they were going to do something like that. While she might like Shouto (too soon to say love), there was no way she would do it here.

Naruto sighed. "Shouto and I are just talking."

Kouta narrowed his eyes. "What were you talking about?"

"He was scolding me for not being decently dressed while I try to save your ass," Shouto looked at her disapproving while the kid snorted her words. "Which reminds me how are you? I would have gone visited but I was getting an earful from the other girls."

"I am fine," he grumbled. "And why are the two of you up? I don't believe that the two of you were just talking."

Naruto sighed and flickered her eyes to Shouto, who kept his mouth shut and had his eyes fixed on the boy. Why was Shouto awake? She was awake because of her embarrassment for what happened. She just wanted to be alone, to gather her thoughts together before facing for the next day where Jiraiya would be training the hell out of her.

"Couldn't sleep," Naruto lied, ignoring the raised eyebrow from Shouto. She stared at the Camellia flowers and felt her lips twitched upwards when she recalled how crappy of a kunoichi she was whenever it came to the flower language. "I was thinking about how happy I am."

Kouta glared at her while Shouto inched closer to her. The blonde shot a look at the boy, who stared at the kid with blank eyes.

"My parents died on the day I was born," Kouta blinked his eyes while Shouta stared at her in concern. "They died being heroes as the leader of my home will tell me whenever I asked about them. Dying as a hero…that makes them seem cool but it was crappy for me. I didn't have anyone who gave a shit about me, Uncle Kenji didn't know about me. Ero-Sennin couldn't even look at me because I was a reminder of my parents."

"Then why the hell did you become a hero? Being a hero is stupid. Your parents died so why would you do the job that killed them?"

Shouto glanced at her, looking at lost to what to do. Naruto just smiled at her friend. He thinned his lips, his bicoloured eyes shone with curiosity at what she was going to do. _Being a hero is stupid._ Yeah, she could now guess what those words meant. He hated heroes, hated them for what they stand and maybe how the job tore away his family.

This was her best guess.

"If you asked me in the beginning then it is because I wanted attention," Shouto jerked his head at her words and Naruto smiled thinly. This was not her reason for becoming a hero but it was her reason for being a kunoichi. "I didn't have much attention growing up, people ignored me and acted like I didn't exist. Even though my parents threw their lives away for them, they could not bring themselves to love a parentless orphan."

Shouto tugged her sleeves. Naruto twisted her head around, felt her lips twitched upwards when she saw the clear concern in his eyes. She placed her hand on her shoulder, stared up at him and prayed to god that her eyes would be enough to convey that she was okay to talk about it.

"You are stupid."

"I was," Kouta blinked his eyes and Naruto smiled at him. "I never said my first reason was smart but then my reason became different. I wanted to be a hero that would be there for the kids who had it crappy life like me. I wanted to be the hero that I never got when I was a kid because you know what was the scariest thing growing up? It is the loneliness of coming home and not having someone greet you."

"You could have been anything but a hero."

"Sure but being a hero suits me more," he jerked his head and Naruto placed her hands over her head. "You know Izuku? No matter how many times I tried to tell myself not to get involved with his fights, I couldn't help it. I could not stand there and just watch someone get hurt so if I am going to use my quirk to save someone then I will just do it the legal way."

"It sounds like a shitty reason."

"You sound like another little boy I know," Kouta blinked and Naruto closed her eyes. "He also hated heroes and he hated me too. He thought I smiled so easily, told me that I didn't know a damn thing about his pain or loss but I have this one belief…crying doesn't fix anything. It won't bring my parents back or anything—it is a waste of time and energy. So I look forward to the future and try to become a stronger person. I don't know what my parents were like but I doubt they would be happy if I spat at their hard work."

"Naruto." Shouto said, tugging her sleeve again.

 _You are going too far._

Naruto sighed. "But that is just me. I don't give a shit about whether you hate us or not but I will find a way to make sure that you don't hate heroes."

 _No one deserved to be filled with so much hate._

* * *

"Is the story about your parents true?"

Shouto stared at Naruto, who had been really quiet as they walked back to their rooms. Blue eyes seemed to be heavy in thought and he wondered if Naruto was really as okay as she claimed to be. He tugged the girl's sleeves, effectively stopping her midway of her walk. She twisted her head and sighed, blue eyes looking more tired than ever.

"Yeah," Naruto took a deep breath. "My parents died as heroes, protecting the home that they dearly loved and they left me alone. It is understandable since it was their jobs to protect their homes…after all how could they be willing to sit at home and take care of their newborn while the village was in danger? It sounds like a crappy thing to do."

Shouto sighed and flickered his eyes to the doors in front of them. It would be a wise decision to talk about this later when there was less possibility that Aizawa-sensei or Naruto's godfather would see them. But he could clearly see his friend was still hurting about opening her heart to the boy. He did not know if Naruto's words touched the boy's heart because Shouto always felt like actions spoke more than words.

"Even if it was crappy thing to do, you wished they did it."

"I am a liar if I don't wish they chose me over protecting the village," Naruto agreed. "I understood why they did it but I wished they were there. On the very first day of school, almost all the kids came with their parents and I was one of the few kids that came alone. While everyone took photo with their parents…I just watch in envy and sadness."

"On the first day of school my parents had an argument," Naruto blinked her eyes and Shouto grimaced, recalling the day. "I don't remember exactly what my shitty old man was arguing with my Mum but I just remembered the fear in her eyes when we made our way to the school. I remembered feeling at loss seeing the happy faces of the other parents and wondering why we were different."

"Shouto."

"You might see those kids and think they were happy but maybe one or two of them weren't as happy as you think they were," Shouto said, staring deeply into her eyes. _Had her eyes always been so blue?_ He took a step closer and Naruto took a step back; her blue eyes widened in curiosity and another emotion he could not read.

"When you stare at those kids, did you ever wish to have their life?" Shouto blinked his eyes and Naruto bored her eyes into him; curiosity shone through them. "I mean I guess you would since Endeavour is a shitty Dad but…did you? Because I did. Whenever my classmates used to complain about their parents to their friends, I wanted to tell them let us switch lives! You live my crappy life and I get to live your life because I would do anything to have that life."

 _Did I ever wish to have a different life?_ Shouto stared at Naruto, drinking in her curious eyes. Maybe when he was younger, he wished for a different father. He hated Endeavour, hated him for what he put him and his mother through but there was no denying he had some benefits from the man. Would he have still met Naruto and the others if Endeavour was not his father?

He shook his head and stared at those curious blue eyes.

"Shouto?"

"Your eyes are really blue." Naruto flushed pink and ducked her head. Shouto frowned. Did he say something to annoy her? Because he was certain that the blonde was not sick. "Why are you hiding your eyes? I think your eyes looks nice."

Naruto shook her head, "What about my question?"

"When I was a kid, I did think about it." Shouto admitted, locking his eyes on her. "But there is no point thinking about what could be."

"I guess you are right," She grinned and she was about to open the door when a thought suddenly occurred to her. "Did you try and stop Mineta earlier?"

' _Aren't you curious one bit about what Naruto looks like?'_

Shouto felt his cheeks flushed slightly as he recalled the words spoken by their classmate. He felt his cheeks flushed even darker when he recalled the jump Naruto made to the top of the wall. The towel really hugged her curves and the look of shock really did suit her. He felt his cheeks even flushed a brighter shade of pink as he recalled her legs.

"What are you thinking about?"

He opened his mouth and only to close it when he realized:

 _I can't tell her about those things._

"Nothing."

"Your face says different."

"Naruto…"

The blonde laughed. "Fine, I won't ask about your thoughts, but thank you Shouto."

He opened his mouth to ask her why she thanked him, only to blink his eyes when Naruto pecked his cheek. His usual cold cheek seemed to be burning under the touch of her soft lips. _Did she infect me?_ He blinked his eyes as he took in her flushed cheeks. All Shouto could only stare at her, trying to process what happened for his friend to give him a peck on the cheeks.

"See you Shouto."

Shouto could only touched his cheeks and stared at the girl.

 _What just happened?_

 _And why did it feel nice?_

* * *

A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter


	40. Chapter 40

_A/N: I want to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows. I can't believe that Nirvana has reached over 1000 reviews and I just want to thank everyone again for reviewing this fanfic._

* * *

 _Whoever decided that it was a good idea to start the training camp at 5:30 a.m. deserves to rot in hell._

Naruto rubbed her eyes and leaned against Momo, who also looked disgruntled about the earliness in which they were forced to wake up. Tsuyu barely had her eyes opened and at one point Naruto had to help her friend stay awake during their walk to the clearing. Ochako looked like a mess, her usual straight hair was now all over the place. Not even Mina looked happy about what was to start.

She glanced at Shouto and twisted her lips into a tiny scowl. _How can he look so wide awake this early in the morning?_ Shouto raised his eyebrow, looking at her with concern. She just smiled at him, giving him a slight shake to tell him that she was fine. Not everyone could be a morning person like him.

People who could wake up so damn early without complaint must be monsters.

"Good morning, ladies and gentleman," Aizawa barked at the group of mostly half-awake students before him. Beside their teacher was Jiraiya, who looked like he barely got out of bed. "Today, we will begin training camp to increase your strength in earnest. The goal of this training camp is to increase everyone's strength and with that, for everyone to obtain their provisional licenses."

 _What the hell is the provisional license?_ Naruto flickered her eyes to Ochako but her friend seemed more content to pay attention to their teacher then help her understand. She sighed. _Maybe they will explain it to us when we need to get the license._

"It is to prepare you all to face hostilities that are becoming more real by the minute. Proceed carefully," Aizawa reached into his pocket and pulled out a softball, turning, "So Bakugou," he tossed the ball his way and Bakugou caught it with ease. "Try throwing that."

"Last time he asked you," Jirou pointed out.

Naruto shrugged, "Maybe he thought it is time for Explosive Head to get the spotlight."

"Your previous record, from right after you started school, was 705.2 meters,"Aizawa said. Naruto felt her lips twitched when she saw the slightly impressed look on Jiraiya's face. The fact he threw that far with his quirk and not with his chakra could be seen as impressive. "Let's see how much you've improved."

"He did that with his quirk?" Jiraiya asked Aizawa.

Aizawa nodded, his eyes showed no emotions about how he felt about Jiraiya's question. Ero-Sennin thinned his lips and stared at her classmate; his dark eyes flashed with curiosity. _I can't really blame him since Bakugou's quirk is kind of cool._ She would rather drink cat's piss then admit this to her fellow blonde.

He already had a big head.

"Oh, we're checking our progress?" Mina questioned eagerly as Bakugou marched to the center.

"Since a lot has happened these past three months, huh? Maybe he can reached Naruto's record or do even better."

 _I probably can do better because my chakra control has improved from that time._ Naruto closed her eyes and focused her chakra to the tip of her fingers. It would probably never reach the level of Tsunade or any medic nin but it was better than a newly graduated genin. Maybe she should put more effort in her chakra control since she did waste a lot of chakra.

She wasted a lot of unnecessary chakra yesterday.

"Do it, Bakugou!" Kirishima cheered as Bakugou reeled his arm back, a wicked grin playing on his lips as his eyes glinted.

"Then…"

 _He looks like a madman_. Naruto yawned.

Bakugou's feet slid back, his stance steadied and heat crackled off his palm before he launched his arm forward. Smoke spluttered, sparks of heat frizzing out from his fingers and then the ball exploded forth from his palm like a cannon launch, skyrocketing into the air.

" _Drop dead!"_

 _Why am I not surprise he used that catchphase?_ The wind from his explosion blew her hair back, forcing her awake. A quick glance to her sides told her that her classmates were a little bit taken back by the catchphrase used by their classmate.

Bakugou stamped one foot down, lips curling up at the corner.

"709.6 meters"

Bakugou's eyes snapped open, looking at Aizawa sharply. Naruto grimaced and stared at the forest, her eyebrows knitted together at this piece of information. How was that possible? With the Sports Festival, the Internship and even the exams, it should have increased even higher. It should have improved to at least 800 meters but it was still in the same range.

"Huh? It is a lot less than I thought," Sero muttered.

Jiraiya rubbed his chin and locked his eyes on Bakugou. "You improved kid but your quirk by itself hasn't improved enough since your school focuses more on improving your technical and mental areas. The Sports Festival alone shows that."

"That is correct," Aizawa agreed as Bakugou gripped his wrist, lips pulled down into a scowl. "The various experiences that you have gained in school has caused you to improve but as Jiraiya-san says, all of you have improved in mental and technical levels."

"I would also like to see your stamina without your quirks," Jiraiya nodded. "All of you will be running laps until you can't run anymore."

The smile on his lips should be reassuring to them but Naruto knew the man was going to plan something underhanded. It would not surprise her if he pulled out a couple of kunai and threw it at them, telling them that he wanted to test how well they could dodge. It was one of the few things he did to her during the lead up to the Sports Festival.

Then again he did want to test their stamina.

* * *

" _Vlad-sensei, Class 1A seem like they are going to die."_

Class B could only stare at the sight before them. Sekijiro stopped, following the motion of one of his students who looked at the scene in front of them with horror.

"Jiraiya-san was serious when he said he will make so that the students will benefit from him," Aizawa explained. "He made everyone run laps while throwing kunais at them. Uzumaki just recently passed out."

Class B stared at the grim-faced white haired man.

The scene in front of them had been unfolding before the awaked and tired Class B was a nightmare. While the collected class behind Vlad were stunned into horrified gawking as they took in the enormous amounts of kunai around the area, Class A laid on the ground like they were about to die. The students had been told Jiraiya-san was to help them with the physical aspect of the job, but they never knew the man would do like this.

"I-Is that a kunai?" Kinoko questioned, picking up one of the kunai. "There is blood."

Sekijiro took the kunai from his student's hands, examining the blood on the kuani before glancing at the fallen Class A. None of the students looked like they had cuts but if he recalled correctly, Uzumaki could quickly recover from any injuries. He flickered his eyes to the fallen blond-haired girl who exhaled and inhaled quite quickly.

"She looks like she is about to pass out," Monoma crackled. "You guys couldn't handle a couple of laps."

"I wouldn't be so cocky if I were you brat," Jiraiya strolled towards them. He nodded at Sekijiro before snatching the kunai from his hands. The white-haired man twirled the kunai, dark eyes glinted with both amusement and pity. "Naruto ran 150 laps while dodging the kunai. Do you think you can do better than that without your quirk?"

 _She did a 150 laps while trying to dodge those things and she didn't use her chakra? Her stamina is unbelievable._ Sekijiro observed the girl, noticing the steam forming around her body. The slight cuts decorating her body seemed to be disappearing in a fast rate. He glanced at the other members of Class A, who stared at Uzumaki with wonder.

"We can do better than them."

Jiraiya curled his lips and grinned.

"Prove it to me."

* * *

' _Wind Chakra has the most attack power.'_

Chewing on her bottom lip, Naruto stared at the leaf in her hand. Ero-Sennin told her to practice her Wind Chakra while he trained Class B. Apparently Monoma claimed the class could do better than her which meant her godfather took it as a challenge. Her godfather probably knew better than to believe him but he always wanted to be proven wrong.

" _Since you master the step of feeling the current, it is time for you to go to the next level in your use of wind chakra: cut this leaf."_

Naruto closed her eyes and tried to focus the chakra in her body, trying to eject the wind chakra to split this leaf in half. If she could master wind chakra then she could do anything. Maybe if she went over the seals with Ero-Sennin then she could seal her own wind chakra inside and let it explode whenever someone touch it.

Maybe she should find someone with a wind quirk and take notes on how to use her wind chakra.

She centered herself and placed her two palms over the leaf, trying to eject her chakra into splitting it in half. There was a twitch beneath her two palms but Naruto knew without a doubt that the leaf had not been cut. It still felt solid under her hand.

 _Should I add more chakra?_

She pushed more chakra out of her palm but the leaf did nothing.

 _Maybe I should try to imagine it as two separate blades coming in together? Maybe I should try to picture them as the wind currents that we were taught in school._

"W-What does a leaf have to do with your quirk…if you don't mind me asking, Naruto?"

Naruto tore her eyes away from the leaf and stared at the ever curious eyes that belonged to Izuku. There was a slight pink tint in his cheeks—a side effect from the events of last night. He looked slightly exhausted which was understandable because Tiger seemed to have taken Plus Ultra to heart when it came to training Izuku.

"Ero-Sennin asked me to split this leaf into half with my energy," Green eyes flashed with curiosity and Naruto knew without a doubt that he had thousands of theories of what her chakra could do. "If I do the steps properly then my chakra can mimic the wind and I can use a lot of powerful techniques with it."

 _Well I can't tell him that my chakra nature is wind because then I have to go and give him a full explanation when I don't even understand it myself._ Naruto focused on the leaf, ignoring the creepy mumbles from her classmate. What was she doing wrong? If only she could ask Ero-Sennin for some clues but the man's affinity was fire.

Beside he would give her an abstract idea to work with.

"How does Jiriaya-san know that your quirk is capable of doing this?" Izuku asked once he finished mumbling. He took a seat beside her. "Quirks are suppose to be unique so how did he figure out your quirk is capable of doing that much?"

"Because Naruto's quirk is like her father's quirk."

The two students swirled their heads around to see Jiraiya standing behind them, his hands folded against his chest as he gazed at them with unreadable eyes. He stared at the leaf in her hands, looking unsurprised at the fact she still hadn't managed to cut the leaf in half.

"Really?" Naruto asked, raising her eyebrow.

Jiraiya nodded. "Your Dad was able to manipulate his energy to mimic fire, wind and lightening."

"That is amazing," Izuku muttered before flickering his eyes towards Shouto. Their friend stood in the corner of clearing, sitting in the bathwater. It was clear to the two teens that it was becoming exhausting for him to constantly switch between fire and ice. "So he was like Todoroki-kun?"

"Not exactly," Jiraiya explained. "Pretty boy over there…"

"Ero-Sennin."

"I am not denying the kid is a pretty boy," Ero-Sennin declared, earning a sigh from Naruto and a laugh from Izuku. Jiraiya shook his head. "Anyways, Pretty Boy can only use half of his side to produce fire and the other half to produce ice. Minato wasn't like that. When he put his hands into a certain position, he can produce techniques which were either fire, wind or lightening."

"Isn't that difficult? He would need to know which energy to manipulate and what positions to do, not to mention the limitations but…" Izuku muttered to himself, scribbling down imaginary notes.

Jiraiya tilted his head at her. "Is he always like this?"

"You get used to it after a while and it is pretty useful," Naruto said as she tried to gasp the words coming out of her friend's mouth. "Izuku spent most of our middle school years analyzing heroes, he even made notebooks dedicated to them."

"He almost reminds me of your father."

Naruto jerked her head at Jiraiya. The man stared at her classmate with both a mixture of nostalgia and sadness, only looking slightly annoyed with the way her friend was babbling about how her father's use of chakra could be very powerful. She stared at Izuku, lips curled into a frown as she tried to imagine her father being as geeky as her friend.

There was no way her mother could fall for such a geeky boy.

"How?"

"Your Dad has a habit of analyzing everything which was very useful when it came to missions and to the bell test," Naruto winced as she recalled her own experience with the bell test. "It took him a while to figure out that the main goal of the bell test but he figure it out before any of his friends could."

Naruto nodded. "What happened to them?"

"You know what happened to Mikoto," Blue eyes widened at this piece of information while Jiraiya nodded, lips curled into a smile. "She liked your Dad but she also knew your parents were hopelessly in love with each other. She was also your mother's best friend and probably cared for her happiness more than she ever cared for hers. I think if she didn't know your parents loved each other then she might have risk everything to disobey her parents and not marry Fugaku."

 _Was that why she used to treat me with kindness? Was it another reason for Sasuke's father to hate me?_ Naruto could only stare at the leaf while her godfather attempted to snap Izuku from his mumbling, finally getting fed up from the talk. She recalled the woman and how her eyes used to turn sad whenever she saw her.

She remembered how kind she was, always greeting her with a genuine smile on her face.

 _To lose your first love and your best friend on the same day must have hurt her._ Naruto shook her head and stared at her Godfather.

"What happened to the third friend?"

"You should know," Naruto blinked her eyes and Jiraiya smiled. "You always went to his restaurant to eat his ramen."

"… _But I don't have money, ojisan."_

" _You can pay me when you grow up to be big and strong."_

She had been starving when Teuchi found her shivering in the streets. He hadn't offered her a place to live which was understandable at the time. While the ramen owner and his daughter adored her and treated her with kindness, his deceased wife hated her. Instead of ignoring her at the time, he offered her some free ramen and told her that it was on the house.

He did that because he respected her father's wishes and because her father must have been his friend.

Naruto felt guilty for not thanking the man for everything he did and not saying goodbye to him.

* * *

"Naruto, your godfather had some interesting ideas on how I can use the ice side of my quirk."

Naruto looked away from her slightly split leaf and stared at Shouto, who was wiping the sweat off from his face. _I miss the white singlet._ The black-sleeved shirt suited her friend, highlighting just how good-looking he was but the white singlet showed off his chest. There was a slight nudge to her ribs, forcing Naruto to snap out of her thoughts.

"You got a bit of drool," Shouto said, pointing to her cheek.

 _I can still remember what you look like without a shirt so it is kind of your fault._ Naruto wiped her cheek and avoided her classmate's eyes, hoping that her face was not as red as she thought it was. She tilted her head when she caught Shouto staring at her. His eyes lingered on her cheeks and she swore she saw him flicker his eyes to her lips.

"Is there something wrong with me?"

"You look cute when you are embarrassed."

 _If his goal was to make me look like a tomato then he achieved it._ Naruto tucked a strand of her blond hair and stared into his sincere eyes. What did Shouto feel around her? Did he like her as a friend? Because Naruto doubt a friend would say these things to her. Shikamaru used to call her troublesome girl, Sasuke called her dead-last while Kiba called her the bitch. None of them ever complimented her when it came to her looks.

They teased her in their own ways but none of them went out of their way to make her feel embarrass.

Then again Shouto had always complimented her looks and even her own capabilities. It really should not surprise her when he say these things to her. It was just her friend being him even if it meant catching her off guard by how sincere his comments are.

Naruto's stomach garbled a cry in outrage.

Shouto's stomach also grumbled and Naruto couldn't help but grinned.

At least she was not the only one hungry.

"Now, remember what I said yesterday?" Pixie-Bob said proudly, brandishing before them table stocked full of fresh produce and kitchen tools, boxes and boxes of curry mix stacked together. "Yesterday was the only day we will be doing stuff for you."

"At least make your own food too!" Ragdoll cheered, showing them a box of curry from the table. "Curry!"

A collective groan of affirmative replies met her back. Naruto tossed the leaf away and made her way to stand beside their class. She tilted her head when she saw how Shouto regarded the materials while Izuku sighed, resigned to his fate.

 _Does Shouto even know how to cook?_

"You guys look exhausted!" Ragdoll cried, tears springing from her eyes with the force of her giggles. "But that doesn't mean you can make any old sloppy cat food—you hear? It needs to be the best!"

 _I think Iida reminds me of Bushy Eyebrows when he has that glint in his eyes._ Naruto sighed as the Class President launched into an explanation on how this could be beneficial for their training. _And he wonders why he believes Aizawa-sensei when he lies to us._ She nodded as the whole group agreed to his enthusiastic words about making the most delicious curry in the world.

As soon as Iida dismissed them, Naruto headed off to the cutting station and grabbed the knife from the cutting board. She raised her eyebrow when Shouto went to her right, hand reaching to the carrots in front of them. _So he knows how to cut? I thought since his shitty old man is number two, he didn't need to learn how to cook._ She twirled the knife with her hand and began to chop the vegetables.

"Todoroki, I think you should stand next to Bakugou."

Naruto twisted her head and raised her eyebrows at Jiraiya, who had his eyes fixed on her friend. The murderous intent in his eyes was a little bit too much if you asked her. The man refused to meet her eyes, intent on glaring at her friend.

"Ero-Sennin, don't you have better things to do then to tell Shouto where he can go?"

"It is for your own safety," Naruto raised her eyebrow and the man smiled innocently, pointing to her knife. The blonde glanced down at her knife, which was now slightly out of balance in her hands. She clicked her teeth together and corrected her posture. "You see?"

"What does my presence have to do with anything?" Shouto questioned him, flickering his eyes to the knife. "And what was wrong with the way she held the knife?"

 _Is he serious?_

The serious expression spoke volumes.

Naruto sighed. "Shouto…you have never cut vegetables before, have you?"

His brows furrowed slightly and Naruto felt her lips twitched when she caught sight of the hostile glint in his eyes. She laughed, earning a frown from her godfather and an even deeper frown from her male classmate.

"Shouto-kun has never cooked before!" Naruto sang.

"I helped my sister make soba," Shouto said curtly but the slight pinkness of his cheeks told her that her friend was slightly embarrassed. "Once."

"So you basically never cook before!" Naruto grinned. "Don't worry my young disciple, I will get you…"

"I will teach him," Jiraya barked.

Naruto raised her eyebrow at her godfather. "Do you even know how to cut vegetables?"

"Of course I do."

 _If you did then why did you always make me do the cooking when we were living together? It would have been nice if you made some food while I was in school._ Naruto sighed and gestured for the man to prove it to her. Honestly she did not understand why he was so hostile to her friend. There was nothing wrong with Shouto.

He was kind and sweet, maybe a little bit oblivious but no one was perfect.

She wouldn't change him for the world.

* * *

A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter.


	41. Chapter 41

A/N: I want to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows as well as reviewing this chapter.

* * *

"Why are we in the middle of the forest?"

Naruto tilted her head and stared at Jiraiya who had been awfully quiet during the lead up to the clearing in the forest. The other members of her class were in their designated areas, focusing on increasing the capabilities of their quirks.

Jiraiya stopped and twisted, dark eyes focused straight on her. "I'm going to teach you something."

Blue eyes widened at the declaration. _Didn't he tell me he won't train me any jutsu until I master splitting the leaf in half?_ Naruto chewed on her bottom lip and fixed her eyes on Ero-Sennin, hands folded against her chest. The hairs on the back of her neck stood as the man took his time to elaborate on what he was going to teach her.

"Are you going to teach me a cool jutsu? A taijutsu move?"

Jiraiya shook his head. "Nope, not this time. It's time for you to learn how to control the chakra of the Kyuubi."

Naruto's face twisted into a scowl. There was an urge for her to yell at Ero-Sennin, to tell him that she was not going to use _that_ chakra. Whenever she used the Kyuubi's chakra, she could feel the demonic presence that was carried. If she used that demonic chakra then her darkest emotions would come out. She was never herself whenever she used the chakra. The damn chakra urged her to kill her opponents and it was sometimes hard for her to get control herself.

She never wants to use the Kyuubi's chakra.

' _You can try and try but there will be a day when your physical powers won't be enough to save the people that you care about. You need to confront the monster and you need to figure out a way that you don't lose control.'_

"It is okay to be scared, Naruto," Jiraiya placed his large hands on her shoulders and looked at her with reassurance. "But I believe in you and I know I am not the only one who believes in you. Your dad had faith in you when he sealed the Kyuubi inside of you."

"I thought it was because he couldn't ask anyone else to give up their child."

Jiraiya waved his hand. "It might have been one of the reasons but your Dad had complete utter faith that you can handle the Kyuubi or else he would never design the seal the way he did."

Naruto took a seat on the forest ground, closing her eyes at this information. She soaked in the chirps of the birds, the explosives coming from the clearing and the fading yells of Tokoyami. For a long time she avoided the thought of trying to control the demonic chakra inside of her despite Aizawa-sensei telling her about the need to control it.

Was she ready to do this?

"If I learn to control the Kyuubi's chakra then will I be able to resist the murderous intent flowing from it?"

Jiraiya nodded and Naruto sighed at the response, feeling more tired than from the taijutsu match he forced her to demonstrate to the others. _I don't want to use it but I also don't want to hurt my classmates._ Shouto, Momo, Jirou, Itsuka and so many of her precious people flashed through her eyes as her heart wared with itself about the action.

She wanted to be able to protect them and she wanted to be an even better hero.

"I will do it," Naruto declared, looking straight into his eyes. "I will control the Kyuubi's chakra and I will become strong enough to protect all my precious people. If I am going to become a hero that cares for the people then I need to face the Kyuubi."

"No arguments?"

"I nearly lost control of the Kyuubi in USJ," Naruto clasped her hands together and grimaced. "If it wasn't for the fact I manage to hold onto some form of sanity then I might have killed someone. I need to learn how to control the Kyuubi."

She steeled her voice, hoping and praying her voice did not crack under the pressure. It was not heroic of her to admit this and yes she might have been a kunoichi but Naruto never had her first kill. She might have nearly killed Haku but Naruto knew in her heart that she never had the capability of doing it, her heart was not cold enough to do something like that.

Jiraiya did not say anything. He just stared at her before bitting his thumb hard enough to draw blood, went through a series of hand seals so quickly that Naruto barely caught the hand seals even though she knew the jutsu. He slammed his palm on the ground, "Summoning Jutsu!"

Smoke erupted from underneath Jiraiya's hand, and after it dispersed, a black and orange toad, with strange rings around his abdomen could be seen sitting on the ground, with an annoyed look on his face.

"What do you want Jiraiya? If you summoned me, I guess it has to be something in relation with the Hakke no Fuin. Whatever your plan is, I think it is a terrible idea," the summoned toad declared.

"Hello to you too," replied Jiraiya. "You are right. I want you to loosen the Kyuubi's seal just a little bit."

"Well, let me just start off by saying, I opposed to this insane idea." The toad croaked. The toad finally noticed Naruto who tilted her head at them. "You even summon me when she is here."

"Calm down," Jiraiya ruffled Naruto's hair. "I am sure the brat can resist the small dose of Kyuubi's chakra but I need to know where her limit is at. So give me the key."

The toad grumbled and continued to protest, but the seriousness and faith Jiraiya had in Naruto finally made the toad give up.

"Fine but I have my doubts about this," the toad grumbled. "I am pretty certain something bad is going to happen but since you want it so badly then here is your key!"

With that, the toad's abdomen opened and, between the metallic rings, a large scroll started to appear and, when it stopped, it opened to reveal a sealing matrix, and a blank square above it. Jiraiya quickly took a peek at the formula before placing his right hand in the square, making his finger glow blue with chakra for a short time, before the scroll closed.

The toad disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Naruto clenched her hands into a fist and prayed to god that there was no fear in her eyes. She could not back down from this because she needed to learn how to work in harmony with the Kyuubi. The fear of hurting her loved ones should be put in the back burner.

"I have faith in you Naruto," Jiraiya repeated himself and Naruto wondered if he knew the anxiety in her. "I know you have what it takes to keep the Kyuubi in check."

"I won't let him sway me."

Jiraiya grinned. "You don't have to tell me Naruto. Now show me your seal."

Naruto's face twisted into a grimace at those words. She took a deep breath and lifted her black shirt, exposing her bare stomach to him. She closed her eyes and started to mold her chakra, making the seal appear.

Jiraiya knitted his eyebrows together and placed his right hand on the seal and slowly opened it.

All Naruto could feel was pain.

* * *

The large metal bars, which separated Naruto from the Kyuubi, stood a couple of meters away from her. There were several pipes running along the ceiling, twisting and turning till it become a complex system. Naruto took a step closer to the cage, splashing till she was close enough to touch the cage. A quick glance to the top of the middle bar revealed a seal.

" **Well look who do we have here,"** Kyuubi said, twisting towards her. He bared his teeth at her and Naruto would be a liar if she did not admit she quivered a little bit. " **The brat who wants my power."**

 _His power._ Naruto stared at the Kyuubi, blue eyes fixated in the anger and hatred shining through those eyes. Three years ago she would have demanded his power, telling him it was his payment for the rent. She hated him for what he stood. She hated him for causing her parents death and being the reason the villagers hated her. She hated him and yet she wanted to take control of his power.

 _Your mother was the previous jinchuuriki._

Uncle Kenji's words echoed in her ears, reminding her of the connection between them. She steeled herself, slapping the sides of her cheeks as the Kyuubi stared at her with so much hatred.

" _Oh, what are you then?'_

' _I am your guardian, Kyuubi…that is what I am.'_

She declared those words on the day Aizawa-sensei told them to choose their hero names. At the time she wanted to find another word to describe their relationship. If the Kyuubi was taken away from her then not only was she dead then she failed to do her job. A jailor sounded like she was an official but Naruto never saw herself like that.

A jailor could do despicable things while a guardian should protect.

"I hated you, you know that?" The Kyuubi jerked his head at her words and Naruto took a seat on the floor, crossing her feet together to stare into the hate filled eyes of the Kyuubi. "You are the reason the villager hates me. You are the reason my parents are dead."

The Kyuubi flicked his tail at the bar and bared his teeth at her. " **And I would do it to you if it mean I can escape from this prison."**

 _Prison._ Naruto touched the large metal bars, blue eyes lingering on the slight marks on the bar. This was his prison. He never asked to be sealed inside of her nor did he ask to be sealed in her mother. He might have caused the deaths of millions of people but could Naruto really blame him? He wanted freedom.

He wanted the same kind of freedom that Naruto had.

"I am sorry."

The Kyuubi blinked his eyes, " **You're sorry?"**

"Yeah because you never asked for my Dad to seal you inside of me," Naruto said softly, forcing herself to smile at the fox. "And I am certain you never asked to be sealed in my Mum. When I think about it…you have never been free. You have always been stuck and transferred from one person to the next…like a family heirloom that no one wants. You were probably hated by Mum too because she probably didn't want you too since they lied to her about why she came to Konoha."

Naruto stood up and made her way to the bars. She slipped past the bars, taking a seat right in front of the furious fox. Had she lost her sanity? It was very likely but being in U.A High, making friends and loving someone made her realize just how mean she had been to the very being that kept her alive.

"I am sorry for all those hurtful comments I made to you," Naruto fixed her eyes on the Kyuubi. "I am sorry for acting like an ungrateful brat to you because I know I would have never survived Sasuke's attack if it wasn't for you."

She took in a deep breath, swallowing down the lump forming inside her throat. It was so easy to hate someone but it was harder to forgive someone even if said person was the reason you were alive. She still hates the Kyuubi for killing her parents and it might be a while before Naruto could forgive him. Yet the fox was the reason she made so many wonderful friends. He was the reason she could meet Shouto, because Naruto doubt the civilian council would have tried to exile her if she was an ordinary orphan.

" **I did not want to reform again."**

Naruto mentally stored the comment for another day and focused all her energy on the fox. "I don't care about your reason at the time but thank you for everything. I know what I represent to you but I am serious about protecting you. I will protect you Kyuubi."

The Kyuubi growled. **"Why? I am the reason you are an orphan."**

"Because you deserve to be protected," Naruto tucked a strand of her hair and smiled at the fox. "I know that I use your powers at times but I want to protect you. The Akatsuki are only after me because I hold you so it kind of makes you a damsel in distress don't you think?"

" **You little brat, I am the great Kyu…"**

"You can't exactly defend yourself when you are stuck inside of me," Naruto pointed out and the Kyuubi growled at her words. The blonde laughed. "I am serious Kyuubi, I am going to do everything in my power to protect you."

" **You are one naïve brat."**

"Careful now Kyuubi…I might think that you are growing soft on me," Naruto tilted her head. "But if I want to protect you from those bastards then I want to use your power…but only if you are willing to give it to me. It is up to you now because I won't demand it from you ever again. It is your power…not mine."

" **You are a foolish brat."**

"I think you are growing fond of me."

* * *

"You know I am actually not surprise that you are good with a knife," Naruto commented, pausing midway of her gathering wood to admire the speed at which Bakugou chopped the carrots. Ochako just gawked at the boy while everyone else continued to bring the items needed to cook their dinner for tonight.

Ochako frowned. "I find it a surprise."

Bakugou glared at them. "What do you mean you are surprise! Why would I be terrible with a kitchen knife?"

Naruto shrugged her shoulders and flickered her eyes to Shouto, who seemed to have his eyes fixed on them. Strange emotions flashed through his eyes and if she didn't know any better, Naruto would think her friend was jealous of Bakugou. It sounded impossible since it was Shouto. Her friend would have to like her in that way to be jealous and it was quite clear to her that he didn't look at her in that way.

The whiskered teen sighed, walking past Itsuka and Iida who seemed to be staring at the rice cooker with intense thought. She knelt down beside Izuku. Ever since she finished her training with Jiraiya, her classmate had been unusually quiet as he robotically arrange the wood deposited next to him.

"Are you okay, Izuku? You have been quiet for some time now," Naruto poked the boy in the ribs and green eyes widened at the sight of her. "You didn't even try and tell me what Ero-Sennin tried to teach you and the others today. He told me to focus more on my training then asking about you guys."

"I am just lost in thought Naruto," Izuku gently placed the wood into the fire pit and Naruto frowned, eyes flashing in concern at his words. "Sorry for not focusing on you."

Naruto sighed. "You know you don't need to apologize right?"

He nodded and rubbed his wrist, green eyes seemed to be in another word as he stared at the logs in front of them. Naruto observed him as she placed the remaining logs into the pit. There was a sense of thoughtfulness in those eyes as if the logs could be the answer to his problems.

"Did you need All Might for something?" Izuku looked up in surprise as Shouto turned off the faucet, holding the pot in his hands. Naruto scooted over to let their friend take his place between them. "You asked Aizawa-sensei about him earlier."

"You did? Why?"

"Yeah, um, I did," Izuku admitted. He avoided Naruto's searching eyes, looking at the logs that were just beside her. "I wanted to talk to him about Kouta…"

Shouto blinked. "Kouta? Who's that?"

"The kid that caught us on the first night," Naruto reminded him and Izuku twisted his head, eyes flickering between the two of them. Shouto blinked before a light shade of pink creeped up on his cheeks, earning a frown from Naruto. "Shouto just wanted to scold me for not wearing proper clothes when I tried to save Kouta and well the kid caught us."

Izuku flushed a light shade of pink, his green eyes avoided her eyes and Naruto wondered if the boy still recalled the state of her clothing.

"I remember him."

"So what is the problem with Kouta?" Naruto twisted her head to look at Jiraiya and blinked her eyes when she saw the lack of hostility in his eyes. All she could see was plain curiosity in his black eyes as he stared at them. _Does he finally get it? There was nothing between us._

"That kid hates heroes," Izuku said, stacking up the logs. "He hates the whole world of superhumans and quirks in general, and I couldn't think of what I should tell him for his sake."

 _Izuku always has his heart in the right place._ Naruto stared at the logs as she recalled how her classmate believed in her admission to U. A High. She could recall the small ways he used to try and help her feel welcome in their middle school even if no one wanted to be his friend. At the time she was not in the best place and Naruto would admit she should have tried harder to be his friend at the time.

She should not have wasted three years moping around.

"Of course you can't think of anything to say Izuku," Naruto stared at the logs. "You have a loving mother that would go hell and back for you. Even when you were being bullied, you came home to the smile of a loving mother. Kouta doesn't have that. Mandalay may be his aunt but an aunt is different from a mother and father. Nothing you say can touch him because you can't imagine how painful it is to know your parents are never going to come back home…that they chose protecting the people over you."

"Naruto."

Naruto smiled at Shouto, placing her hand on his shoulder but her friend still looked at her with concern.

 _Are you sure you can talk about this?_

"I can understand why he hates them," Naruto continued, smiling at the boy. "My parents died being heroes and while everyone celebrated what they did…I paid the price by coming home to an empty apartment with no one to greet me. It is quite easy to talk and to be honest Kouta reminds me of another little boy I know."

"In what way?" Izuku asked.

"Inari hated heroes and he hated anyone that wants to become them," Naruto picked up the log and tossed it around as she recalled her memories. "He thinks that it was just stupid to be a hero because a hero gets themselves killed. His Dad tried to save their village but the big business tycoon murdered him execution style in public. It took persistence and maybe me saving his ass for him to realize that being a hero isn't something bad."

Izuku frowned at the wooden log in his hands. "Then why don't you try talking to him? If you could get that boy to heal then maybe you could do the same."

"It doesn't work like that," Shouto stared at her. "Naruto was able to connect to that boy because of her actions towards him not because she only reasoned with him. If Naruto just try to reason with him then it would be annoying. The thing with Naruto is that whatever words she says to a person is usually back up with her actions. If words were enough to move someone by themselves then they have to be pretty powerful. I think words have to be accompanied by action…"

' _Why are you crying?'_

Naruto felt her throat clogged up when Shouto fixed his eyes on her. Bicoloured eyes flashed with so many emotions: gratefulness, understanding, hints of happiness and another emotion she thought she could identify. Did he remember that day? Or was it just another ordinary day for him? She cleared her throat and turned her head away, trying to suppress the memory of how close they were that day.

"I don't know what you want to do with him," Shouto focused his eyes on Izuku. "But I don't think you or Naruto should stick your nose into such a delicate topic. The both of you have no problems about breaking through that kind of thing even if Midoriya doesn't seem like the type."

"Are you trying to imply something, Todoroki Shouto."

He nodded. "Yeah you have no problem with being blunt when it comes to delicate situations."

"I couldn't help it during the Sports Festival," Naruto grumbled. "You weren't really acting like yourself. I mean well technically you were but you were acting like some asshole because of your shitty old man and well I didn't want you to lose sight of who you really are. Also everyone knows that you shouldn't compare yourself to shitty old man since you are thousand times better than him. I mean you have nice smile and well your eyes are so warm which…why is no one stopping my motor mouth?"

"I like your motor mouth," Shouto admitted.

Izuku flickered his eyes at her and then to Shouto, his green eyes flashed with both embarrassment and understanding. He offered the two of them a smile before making some excuse to leave them alone, earning confused looks from the two teens.

"You still remember what I did in Sports Festival."

Shouto didn't say anything instead he focused his eyes on hers. "It is hard for me to forget about it. You cried because you thought of how lonely I was in my suffering. You tried to tell me that I am not like my father after you heard my conversation with my shitty old man."

"Do you really think I shouldn't have meddled at the time? Because you seem to be happy that I meddled."

"I wasn't happy at the fact you overheard me talking to Midoriya," Naruto rubbed the back of her neck while Shouto stared blankly at her. "But I realize I shouldn't have been angry since…I overheard you talking to your Godfather."

Naruto's eyes widened at his words. She flickered her eyes to their classmates, who seemed to be too busy preparing for their dinner. Naruto took a deep breath, calming down her shaking hands and then proceeded to grab Shouto by the arm.

She dragged him towards the edge of the forest, knowing that no one in the two classes would overhear them talk.

"What did you overhear?" Naruto asked, trying to keep her voice calm.

Shouto regarded her for a moment, his bicolored eyes showing no emotion or indication on what he felt about the topic. How much did he overhear? Did he know about her past as a kunoichi? Did he know about the story between her, Sasuke and Sakura? Did he know about the Kyuubi? If he did then why did he never talked about it.

"Jiraiya congratulated you for winning the obstacle race," Shouto admitted. "You admitted that you weren't happy even though you won the whole thing. You kept talking about three years ago and how happy you would have been to won the race. You admitted to him that you aren't some kind of girl that wallows in your sadness but you can't shake those feelings off. You admitted that all you can do was think of your village and how you struggled to make them happy with you."

Naruto gulped at the words and closed her eyes. What should she do? Did he understand anything they were talking about? Because it didn't sound like anything that could be understood without any knowledge.

"You also mentioned the Chuunin Exams," Shouto continued. "You went against someone called Neji and no one thought you had a chance against him. No one cheered your name until you defeated him. You admitted that there were also times when you were very close to becoming some kind of monster that they claim you…"

Naruto slapped her hand over Shouto's words, effectively stopping him from finishing those words. She felt her legs wobbled as her mind swirled with the information her friend told her. He overheard this much about her during the Sports Festival and he never confronted her about it. Why? Why didn't he ever ask her anything?

"Naruto, are you okay?"

"Why didn't you ask me about it? Why did you keep it quiet?" Naruto choked out. "You must have seen me as a liar didn't you?"

Shouto took a step closer towards her. "Because it was not my business to meddle and I know if you wanted to talk about it then you would," he took another step forward and Naruto went back a step. "I didn't want you to remember something that only brings you pain. I didn't want to push you to open up to me."

"But you must have had questions."

"Your godfather cleared a few of them," Shouto gazed at her. "You know he really cares about you and he only wants you to be happy. He only explained a few things because I overheard the conversation. He believes it is your right to tell everyone else about your past. He told me that your parents were strong shinobi and that they have a lot of enemies and to protect you the Hokage kept your heritage a secret. The old Naruto appearently was someone who wouldn't be able to keep her mouth shut."

 _I am not that bad, Ero-Sennin._

"What else?"

"You were nearly exiled," Naruto closed her eyes and grimaced at the reminder. "Jiraiya informed me that you lost control of yourself during your mission to bring back Sasuke."

She slumped her shoulders and stared at her friend. He knew basically half of the things about her, the only thing left was the Kyuubi and it would be a done deal. How could he keep something like this a secret? And if Ero-Sennin told him then why was her godfather acting so overprotective? The moment she told him the truth then he would go.

There was always the possibility that he would leave her.

" **He might surprise you. Your father still loved your mother even after she told him the truth about me."** Naruto blinked her eyes at the Kyuubi's voice. Was the fox actually trying to meddle with her love life? Was she actually going to listen to him? She stared at Shouto and debated with herself.

Does she tell him the truth?

She didn't want to lose him but Naruto also knew he deserved to know the truth.

"You know how most kids love their birthdays and how they couldn't wait to celebrate it? I usually dread my birthday," Shouto didn't say anything and Naruto swallowed down the lump. "Because not only did my parents die on my birthday but apparently they sealed the Kyuubi inside of me."

"What is the Kyuubi?"

"He is the nine-tailed fox," Naruto's hand hovered over her stomach. "The Kyuubi attacked my village and caused a lot of innocent people to die…in a way it is my fault."

Shouto frowned. "How can it be your fault? You were a baby."

"I might have been a baby but my mother took the biggest risk in the world by bringing me to this world," Naruto gulped down her lump. "The Kyuubi used to be sealed inside of my mother and apparently the only thing that weakens a seal is…"

"…Child birth."

Naruto nodded. "Somewhere along the way they were not able to control the seal and the Kyuubi was let loose, causing only chaos and destruction in Konoha. My Dad was the leader of the village and he had a tough choice to make: protect the village and sacrifice the happiness of his daughter…or sacrifice the village and protect the happiness of his daughter. You can guess what choice he made."

Her friend took another step closer and Naruto felt herself stiffened when the boy wrapped his arms around her, letting her be comforted by the heat of his left side of the body. Images of the hot spring flashed through her mind and Naruto suddenly felt aware of how build her friend's body was.

 _Not the right time to remember this, brain._

"The villagers used to look at me with hate and they would call me names like monster, demon child and even at one point: freak," Naruto sniffed her friend's scent and tried to calm herself down. "I never understood why so at first I tried to score very well in school…but no one was happy about it. Most of the girls thought I didn't deserve it, saying that Sasuke deserved it more than me."

Her friend awkwardly patted her back and Naruto could only smile at the effort he was trying to put in when comforting her.

"The teachers also gave me harder papers to do so I realize there was just no point for me to put so much effort in class," Naruto sighed. "Probably a big mistake since no one took me seriously. I tried so hard to make everyone love me: I acted like an absolute idiot, played pranks to make them laugh and so many other things. I just wanted them to notice me…for someone to care about me. Instead all they can see was the fox and instead of forgiving me for my small lapse in judgement…they wanted to exile me."

Shouto pushed her slightly off from his chest and Naruto was taken back by the seriousness in his eyes. She could see the sincerity in his eyes but what was he sincere about? She felt her throat clogged up when she saw the lack of judgement and hate in his eyes.

"You don't hate me? I carry a demon inside of me."

"Why would I hate you? You are Naruto Uzumaki: the girl that always tries her hardest to be there for people. You are the girl that is more willing to comfort other people then to let someone comfort you…but Naruto you have me and Class A now."

The sincerity in Shouto's eyes was almost enough for her to believe her classmates might accept her and the Kyuubi.

She might take the risk to tell them but it probably wouldn't be today.

* * *

A/N: Please review and tell me what you think.


	42. Chapter 42

A/N: I want to thank everyone that added this story to their favourite and follows as well as reviews.

* * *

"You seem to be very quiet, Naruto."

Naruto looked away from her food and stared at the concern eyes of Jiraiya. She was currently the only one sitting on the bench—her friends were too busy getting their second round of food from the pot. The middle aged shinobi slid into the bench opposite her, the bowl of food in one hand and a spoon in the other.

"I told Shouto the truth about me."

Her godfather made no comment, only regarded her for few seconds before focusing his eyes on Shouto. The boy was currently talking to Izuku as they waited in line for the stew. Shouto must have sensed her godfather staring because he twisted to look at them. His eyes lingered on her before looking back at Jiraiya, who made no indication about his emotions.

"You want me to beat him up? I never liked Pretty Boy."

"Why would you beat him up? Shouto didn't do anything wrong," Naruto swirled her food around and looked at Shouto. "He told me that I am Naruto Uzumaki. He didn't think of me as a demon or anything."

Jiraiya relaxed his shoulders and observed her, dark eyes showing no indication of how he felt about her words. Naruto just stared at the stew, trying to grab a handle in her thoughts. It made her so happy to hear those words, to know Shouto didn't think of her as the Kyuubi. The thought of him rejecting her was one that made her both nervous and scared.

Shouto wasn't just her crush, he was also one of her closest and dearest friends in this school.

"Todoroki isn't a bad kid," Jiraiya commented, shoving the rice into his mouth. Naruto startled at those words and raised her eyebrows at the shinobi. Jiraiya rubbed the back of his neck, avoiding her eyes. "I know I might have taken things a little bit too far when it came to watching the pair of you."

"A little bit?" She muttered.

He winced, his eyes looking a little bit apologetic. Naruto sighed. She pushed her food away, blue eyes focused on her apologetic Godfather. She shook her head. Shouto was right when he said Jiraiya cared for her even though she had to wonder why he took things overboard when it came to Shouto. The man should be more worried about his other apprentice: Mineta. The boy was constantly trying to find new ways to peek at them.

"Alright, alright. I was being harsh on your friend," Jiraiya slumped his shoulders. "But I felt like it is my duty as your Godfather to make sure that there is no bad influences around you. If your Dad was here he would be giving Todoroki his death glare."

Naruto sighed. "Shouto isn't someone you have to worry about."

Her godfather raised his eyebrow, twisting his body around to look at Shouto. Todoroki tilted his head, eyebrows knitted together as Jiraiya observed him and Naruto offered him a tiny smile. The boy's eyes grew round before he looked away from her. She tilted her head, knitting her eyebrows together as she tried to understand what happened.

"You love him," Jiraiya commented.

Naruto spluttered, blue eyes growing round as her cheeks grew red at his accusation. Love? Wasn't it too soon for her to be in love? She jerked her head in Todoroki's direction. The boy glanced at her before returning back to his conversation with Izuku.

"I don't know," admitted Naruto. She tightened her grip on her spoon and stared at her food, wishing it would give her the answers she needed. How could she be certain she was in love? _I know my feelings for Shouto isn't one of a crush but I don't know if it is the real deal._ It was so easy for her to see other people's feelings but it was a different story when it came to herself.

Jiraiya regarded her for a couple of seconds, his black eyes appeared to show no emotion. He nodded and interlocked his fingers together before placing his head over them.

"But you have feelings for him."

Naruto nodded, a tiny smile played on her lips. Ero-Sennin sighed and run his hand through his hair as he looked at her. The whiskered girl pushed her potato back and forth, not noticing how her cube of potato was being slightly smashed at the process.

"I am not going to lie Naruto: I'm not happy with this," Naruto jerked her head and blue eyes widened at those words. Jiraiya held his hand up. "It is nothing personal but I don't want to feel anymore older. It felt like yesterday I was dealing with your lovesick father and now I am dealing with his teenage daughter."

"Ero-Sennin, I am not…"

Her godfather waved away her protest. "And your Dad might haunt my ass for letting this happen because he always refused the idea that you might fall in love someday. Even when you were in your mother's womb, you were already his princess. He glared at all the boys below the age of six because he knew one day you were going to be taken away from him."

Naruto smiled before flickering her eyes to Shouto. Her friend had his eyes fixed on her as he slapped the stew on top of his rice. She felt her lips twitched when Izuku poked Shouto in the rib, startling the younger boy.

"Do you really think he would hate Shouto?"

"I think he would love and hate him," Jiraiya admitted. "He would hate him because he is the boy that you have feelings for…but he would love him because Shouto respects you. In the last three days of camp, I notice that your friend respects your opinion and that he goes out of his way to make you happy."

Naruto smiled softly, the small corner of her lips barely lifted up from the horizontal position of her mouth.

"You could do a lot worse."

* * *

Todoroki tilted his head and knitted his eyebrows together as he stared at his smiling blond-haired classmate who was talking to Yaoyorozu. He felt his face heat up when Naruto flickered her eyes at him, a smile playing on her lips. He touched his cheeks and wondered if he should step further away from the trees because it seemed like he might burn something up.

He felt his cheeks burned even brighter when he recalled how he held Naruto. It seemed like the right thing to do was to hug the girl as she finally confessed her problem to him. It should have been normal but something seemed to be different about his behavior. The last time he hugged Naruto, he didn't have the urge to do something reckless like burn the place down.

"Now, we've filled our stomachs and washed the dishes!" Pixie-Bob cheered, clapping her paws together. "Next is…"

"The test of courage!" Ashido cheered, throwing her hands into the air and the other supplemental students cheered behind her.

" _We're gonna test it!"_

Todoroki felt his lips twitched when Naruto pumped her fist in the air, joining in with the cheers of the other students. Blue eyes twinkled with excitement but there was also a flash of fear in her eyes. He pushed his two eyebrows together, wondering if maybe Naruto was actually afraid. He strolled towards the girl who seemed to have her eyes fixed on the ground.

"Before that," Aizawa cut in. The supplementary classmates went rigid, eyes bulging at the ground as a nervous sweat broke out across their faces. "It pains me to say this, but the extra lesson group will be having class with _me_ now."

" _You've gotta be kiddng me!"_ Ashido cried, falling to her knees in despair. Aizawa looked like he didn't care one bit about the girl's feelings.

"Sorry," his binding cloth snapped outwards without mercy, effectively gathering the selected students. "Your training during the day wasn't good enough, so I have to use this time."

"Give us a break!"

"We want to be tested!"

"I am so glad that Explosive Head and Izuku cooperated with me," Naruto muttered, looking at their classmates with pity. She twisted around, blue eyes widened at the sight of him standing beside her. Todoroki took in the surprise in Naruto's eyes, noticing how big her eyes grew at the sight of him. "Shouto."

"You look scared."

Naruto laughed nervously, blue eyes avoiding his gaze as the other students talked between themselves. He observed her—waiting for her to tell him about her fears. His quirk did not allow him to understand what went through the unpredictable girl's mind although Todoroki presumed he knew her better than most of their classmates.

"I'm not scared!" Naruto declared but there was a slight waver in her voice. "G-Ghosts aren't real."

Shouto regarded her. "Your voice squeaked."

"Fine, I'm a little bit scared!" Naruto muttered. She looked down at her feet and shuffled side to side, blue eyes still avoiding his gaze. Todoroki tilted his head at the action, uncertain on what he should do to reassure the girl. "Ghosts are really scary."

"Okay!" Pixie-Bob clapped her hands together, gathering their attention. "Class B will be the first to be the scarers. Class A will leave in pairs every three minutes. There are tags with your name written on them in the middle of the route, so bring those back with you."

"A revelry in the dark," Tokoyami murmured.

"Those being the scarers aren't allowed to make direct contact," Pixie-Bob continued. "Show us how scary you are with your Quirks!"

"The class that makes the most people piss their pants and imagination wins!" Tiger declared fiercely.

Todoroki stole a glance at Naruto. The fear in her eyes seemed to have vanished and was instead replaced with mischief. He relaxed his shoulders, allowing himself to memorize the mischievous glint in her eyes.

"You already have a plan on how to scare the shit out of them."

Naruto rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly and nodded. "I got a couple of ideas running through my head."

"Now, you'll draw lots to determine your partners!" Pixie-Bob brandished the number strips, eagerly holding them out to everyone and Todoroki tugged his own free after Naruto. "Get together and let's get this started! Class B, to me!"

Todoroki turned the paper over and blinked. _Two._ Everyone around him quickly began to shuffle into their partners. Naruto glanced at his number and Todoroki stole a glance at her number. _Five._ He frowned when he realized that he felt disappointed that they were not paired up together. Was her partner going to realize that Naruto was scared?

Bakugou's heavy steps came to an abrupt halt. His entire body began to tremble, a heavy vein throbbing against his forehead and Todoroki kept his face indifferent. From the number two on Bakugou's hand, Todoroki figured he was going to be paired up with him.

"Trade with me, Whiskers." Bakugou demanded.

Naruto held her finger up and flickered her eyes to the others, who were already paired up. Only Midoriya seemed to be alone and the boy looked pale—no doubt he jumped to conclusion that he was going to be by himself.

"Are you sure you want to switch with me? Because Izuku is supposed to be my partner."

Bakugou scowled and shook his head before charging after the other groups. Todoroki flickered his eyes to Naruto who seemed to have her eyes fixed on Midoriya. Did she like him? He didn't miss the way her eyes lingered on his chest on the first night. He frowned as he recalled the uncomfortable feeling in his chest when he caught the way her eyes drank in his chest.

"Are you sure you want to go with Midoriya?"

Naruto tore her eyes away from Midoriya and nodded. "I would have taken Bakugou's slip if I knew he was still willing to go with Izuku since you know it is a good idea for the two of them to bond."

"You could have kept silent that your partner was Midoriya."

Naruto nodded. "I could but I don't want to hear him bitching to me about how I lied about who my partner was—I thought this was better. Besides I think he would murder me for letting him be paired up with Izuku."

Todoroki could only watch as Naruto glided to Midoria, a tiny smile playing on her lips. He flickered his eyes to his partner who seemed to have finally decided to stop demanding for the others to switch with him.

He wondered if he should have been the one to ask Midoriya for the switch.

* * *

Twelve minutes later, the forest was ripe with the screams of Class A students. It was time for the fifth group to go and have their fun.

Pixie-Bob gestured to the next pair with a little smile. "Alright, time for our little kitties to go for it! Try not to wet yourselves!"

Izuku gulped and Naruto forced herself to smile at the boy as they walked down the trail and into the forest. Fear must not be shown to her classmate. She might be terrified of ghosts but Naruto just needed to remember that the scarers were students, not some kind of ghost that could haunt her ass. It was not like they had quirks which could summon ghosts.

"You probably wanted Todoroki-kun with you," Izuku said, squeaking when they heard a scream ahead. "Not that I am not happy but why didn't you trade with Kacchan?"

Naruto regarded her friend. "Just because I am close with Shouto, doesn't mean I am going to let you deal with Explosive Head in his foul mood."

Izuku flashed a tiny smile at her words and Naruto felt her heart clenched as the memory of Hinata flashed through her mind. Izuku might be a boy but there was something about him that reminded her of her dearest friend. It was probably the way they always give that small smile or maybe it was the way they seemed to believe in her.

Izuku jumped when they heard two shrieks. "Th-that's gotta be Jirou or Hagakure right?"

Naruto gathered her chakra to her ear, closed her eyes and analyzed their screams. From the high tones, she guessed it had to be her friends. Shouto wasn't the type to scream when scared or even seemed to be the kind of guy that got scared. Bakugou might scream like a maniac but Naruto doubt her classmate was easily scared.

"Yup."

An odd scent was suddenly carried down the breeze, causing Naruto to stop in her tracks. She frowned and sniffed the air, making Izuku stop to stare at her. "What's wrong, Naruto?"

"It smells like something is burning."

Izuku blinked and inhaled through his nose, wincing a bit at the sharp smell. "Yeah. Maybe someone used their Quirk up ahead."

 _The only person who could cause fire would either be Bakugou or Shouto._ Naruto frowned and stared at the woods around them, eyebrows knitted together. Even though she called Bakugou an Explosive Head, he was not impulsive enough to cause an explosion large enough to cause so many trees to burn. Shouto would never use his left side until he had some control over it. Even now Shouto used his right side more than his left side.

"Explosive Head isn't impulsive enough to do this," Naruto dug her fingers against her skin. "I think if Shouto was scared he would use his right side and even then I doubt he would be scared enough that he would do this."

She glanced around at the trees as the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. Naruto dug her fingers even deeper against her skin as her mind swirled with information. For a brief moment she thought she saw a flash of brown hair but her eyes must be playing tricks with her.

Naruto closed her eyes and tried to see if there was another chakra presence here.

"Come out mutt! I can sense your damn chakra!" Izuku blinked his eyes at her yells as a familiar figure appeared out of the bushes along with a familiar dog. Naruto's eyes widened at the sight of how large Akamaru became. Damn the last time she saw the dog, he was large enough to be carried on Kiba's head. Her classmate took a step back but Naruto held her hand to stop him, blue eyes focused on the familiar face of Hinata's teammate.

"Your senses hasn't dulled, bitch." Naruto growled at the nickname while Akamaru barked at her. Izuku swirled his head back and forth at them, green eyes not understanding what the hell was happening between them. "It is a shame because I thought it would be easy to ambush you."

"Naruto, who is this?" Izuku squeaked. "I-Is he a villain?"

Naruto regarded the feral eyes of Kiba, debating on what words to be used on her former classmate. Villain would be an easy word to be used on him. It would allow her and her friend to run but it was the wrong word to use. As much as she disliked the ass, Kiba wasn't really a bad person. He used to be her skipping buddy, the friend that would try and encourage her fights with Sasuke.

"Kiba is a lot of things but I wouldn't describe him as a villain," Naruto declared slowly as she placed her teeth against her thumb. Kiba narrowed his eyes at her while Izuku frowned at her. "Dog Breath over there is my former skipping buddy in Primary School."

"Skipping buddy! And Primary School? What the hell are you talking about, Naruto!"

Naruto ignored his screams and regarded him. "If you are here then is Hinata-chan here? And your other teammate? I honestly keep forgetting his name!"

"Hinata-chan? Teammate? What are you talking about, Naruto?" Izuku yelled at her.

"He doesn't know, does he?" Naruto kept quiet while her classmate looked at them in confusion. Kiba growled at her, eyes flashing with anger at her quietness. "Why the fuck did you run away from Konoha? Do you know how many days Hinata cried about it? Or were you too fucking self-centered to even think of…"

Naruto clenched her hands into a fist, trying to calm down her temper as Izuku swirled his head at them. Green eyes flashed with confusion as he tried to make sense of what was happening. Naruto wished she could explain herself, wished she could do it but right now all her mind could think of was the fact she made Hinata cried.

Hinata who became her first friend when everyone else avoided her.

She knew she had been a bitch but to hear those words coming out of Kiba's mouth hurt even more.

"Kiba-kun! Stop!"

Naruto felt a lump grew in her throat when Hinata jumped down from the trees, milky eyes flashed with uncharacterized anger towards Kiba. She flickered her eyes around the trees and felt her heart stopped when she caught sight of Shino. The boy had his face completely covered, no emotions seemed to flash through his glasses.

For the first time in Naruto's life, she wondered how he could see in the dark.

"Hinata-chan."

Her friend turned towards her, milky eyes flashed with so much joy and understanding that Naruto felt her legs wobbled. She opened her mouth to say something, maybe to apologize for never telling her goodbye or maybe to apologize for being a shitty friend to her. God, she didn't know what to say to her friend.

' _Everyone!'_ Naruto and Izuku jumped as Mandalay's voice rang in their heads, making use of her telepathy. Team Eight looked at them in confusion. " _Two members of the League of Villains have invaded the area! It is possible there are still more of them around! Those students who are capable, retreat to the lodge immediately! Don't engage them in combat!"_

"Naruto, how did they find us?" Izuku asked calmly, green eyes fixated on Team Eight. "Are you certain that they aren't villains? Because you heard Mandalay—there are two members of the League of Villains here."

"Mandalay? Who the hell is that? Sounds like a cat's name." Kiba grumbled. "And we found you guys because of Naruto's scent," he pulled out her old orange jumpsuit. "This was one of the few things Naruto left behind before she run away from Konoha. We can track down anyone!"

Naruto rolled her eyes at the arrogant tone of her classmate while Hinata regarded her, pale milky eyes fixated on the boy in front of them. Naruto tilted her head as her mind processed what Mandalay had just told them. Blue eyes widened as she recalled Kouta had been nowhere near the lodge since dinnertime.

She twisted her head to look at Kiba. "Oi Dog Breath, I need your help."

"Dog Breath! Why the fuck…"

"Because you still stink like a mutt," Naruto growled, earning a sigh from Hinata and raised eyebrows from Izuku. "I need you to track a little boy down and bring him back to his aunt."

Green eyes widened in realisation.

"Little boy…Kouta!" Izuku yelled. "I'll go get him, I know where he is."

Naruto regarded her friend for a moment before nodding her head. "Take Dog Breath with you, you will probably need back up."

"Oi, you are not the boss of me!" Kiba grunted. "I am a chuunin and you are still a genin!"

"The world must have ended if you became a chunin."

"Naru-chan!"

Naruto held her hands up in the air as Hinata gave her those scolding eyes. "Look I can guess why you guys are here but we are currently having a tiny situation, where there are a couple of bad guys after us. This is not the time for me to battle myself out of here and tell you to go and tell the Old Hag that I have no desire to go back to Konoha."

"What about your dream?" Hinata asked, fixing her eyes on her. "You spent almost your whole life declaring that you are going to become Hokage. Are you willing to throw it away?"

There was no judgement or guilt treatment in those milky eyes, just pure curiosity. Naruto looked at the trees, recalling the days when she used to scream to the world about her dream. The reason she wanted to become Hokage was because she wanted recognition. She wanted respect. She just wanted to be accepted.

Those were not the right reasons to become Hokage.

Being a Kage meant making difficult decisions. The fact the Hokage did nothing and allowed a whole clan to be excuted made her sick to her stomach. There was no way she could become someone that was willing to take genocide over peaceful talks. Three years ago, she had been a naïve child that knew nothing about how the world work.

It probably didn't help she made so many wonderful friends here, found people that accepted her and had a family that loved her.

"Yes."

Hinata regarded her; milky eyes flashed with understanding. "Then what can we do to help?"

Naruto grinned wildly at those words.

* * *

A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter.


	43. Chapter 43

A/N: I want to thank everyone that added this story to their favorites and follows.

* * *

"Shino, have your bugs detected any nearby students or not?"

Hinata sighed while Shino narrowed his eyes at her, lips pressed thinly at her impatient tone. Naruto's eyebrows twitched. The three of them stood on top of the trees, legs pressed together as Shino paid extra attention to the information given to him by his insects. Naruto wanted to stomp her foot on the branch because time was in the essence and she had no idea where the fire was coming from.

"There are two students a few hundred meters ahead," Shino declared, pointing straight ahead. He frowned and pressed his glasses against his nose. "There is also a poisonous gas in that area so if you want to rescue them then we need to be quick."

 _Poisonous gas._ Naruto felt like pulling her hair at this new piece of information. For there to be poisonous gas in the forest meant that there was a possibility that there was a villain with a Quirk capable of making toxic chemicals. They were screwed. Her friends were in danger and she didn't know any medical techniques to treat poisonous gas.

Naruto shook her head and began to jump through the trees, eyes darting downwards to find any of her friends or even a member of Class B. Hinata locked her eyes on the ground, milky eyes flashed with worry and fear at the information presented to them.

Naruto halted at the sight of Momo's white shirt, blue eyes flashed with relief. She whiffed the air, grimacing at the sharp poisonous scent tickled her nostrils. Her head throbbed at the scent and Naruto knew if she was starting to feel dizzy then it must be a hundred times worse for Hinata and Shino. Unlike her, the two teens did not have a fox that could cure any poisonous effects.

She motioned for Hinata and Shino to stop, her blue eyes still locked on her friend. Momo's eyes darted to their surroundings, her onyx eyes flashed with fear and concern as she tried to call out for her. Naruto felt her heart clenched at the fear and desperation in her friend's eyes.

Naruto took a deep breath and jumped down, earning a screech from the two teens. From above the trees Hinata shook her head, milky eyes flashed with hidden amusement at her childhood friend's action. Shino just pushed his sunglasses up and leaned against his foot, eyes focused on the teens.

"Naru-chan!" Momo pressed her hand over her chest, taking in deep breaths. Awase cursed at the girl, grey flashed with annoyance at the scare the girl gave them.

"Give a guy a warning why don't you," Awase snapped, voice muffled through the mask. He flickered his eyes to the tall trees, eyebrows scrunched together when he caught sight of the other two teens on the top of the branches. "Get away from here! We've got company."

The boy tensed, grey eyes flashed with both determination and fear at the sight of the two teens. Naruto shook her head and looked upwards to Hinata and Shino—both of them didn't look annoyed at the subtle warning that Awase hinted. She knew it had been a good idea to send Kiba with Izuku; the older boy would have been insulted at how quick he was to label him.

"They aren't the villains!" Naruto motioned for Hinata and Shino to jump down. "They are here to help us."

Awase swirled his head, hands clenched into a fist and grey eyes flashed with anger. "And how do you know that? Were you the one that brought them here? Were you the one that spilled…"

 _Slap._

Naruto blinked at the sight of her usually calm friend slamming the palm of her hand against the boy's face, onyx flashed with anger at what the boy implied. She knew it was not the right time to be happy for Momo defending her, not when she needed to make a request from her. Awase rubbed his cheeks, grey eyes flashed with anger and confusion at the action.

"What was that for? We have two people in this camp that we don't know and Uzumaki just admitted that she knew them!" He narrowed his eyes. "For all we know she might be lying about them coming here to help us and they are…"

"If we wanted to kill you then we would have done it because it would be easy to kill you while you are distracted," Naruto smashed her palm against her forehead while Awase and Momo paled at the ease Shino spoke of murdering them. Hinata smiled sheepishly at the teens. "However we chose not to because Naruto requested help from us."

"And how do you know each other?" Awase demanded.

"Hinata-chan is my best friend and Shino is my former classmate," Naruto explained, eyes darting at Shino. The slight stumble Shino made told her he was surprise she recalled her name. The moment he spoke with logic was the moment Naruto knew that it was Shino. Of course she could never tell him that; Shino was a little bit sensitive about this.

Although she might be wrong and bug boy was fine.

"And why are they here, Naruto?" Momo asked, onyx eyes darting at the two teens. "I know you aren't the type to put anyone in danger but it can't be coincidence that they appeared on the same night that the League of Villains attacks."

"Because we were ordered to bring Naruto back to Konoha by Hokage-sama," Shino replied. Naruto's eyes darted to the ground, hands clenched into a tight ball of fist while Momo's eyes widened at the implication of what those words meant. "We have been searching for Naruto for three years and only in the last two weeks had we been able to get any scent of Naruto."

"They make you sound like you are a criminal," Momo observed.

"Because in the eyes of Konoha I am a criminal." Onyx eyes widened at her words and Naruto closed her eyes, remembering Kakashi's words about what the village did to missing nins. "I will explain the whole thing later when everyone is safe and sound but right now…we need those masks."

Momo tightened her grip on the masks, looking torn between demanding for answers or to give them the masks. _Why did Shino have to talk about the orders? Can't he read the mood for once in his life? You would think three years with Kiba would have taught him some social skills._ Naruto chewed on her bottom lip, hands clenched into a tight ball while Hinata fixed her eyes on the torn girl.

"I know you are confused about what is happening but you know Naruto isn't the type to put her precious people in danger," Hinata said calmly, milky eyes fixed on the concern girl. "We want to attack the people—"

"Assholes."

"—the _people_ that put everyone here in danger," Hinata finished, eyes flashed with amusement at the girl's comment. "You must have spent a long time with Naru-chan, do you really think Naru-chan is capable of intentionally hurting someone?"

Onyx eyes widened in realization at the teen's words and without a second thought, Momo handed the three of them masks. Naruto flashed a grateful smile at Hinata before opening her mouth to explain herself, her friend shook her head.

"You will explain your reason after this whole thing is over," Momo ordered as the three other teens placed the masks over their heads. "I believe in you Naru-chan and I hope you have a good explanation for what is happening."

Naruto could only nod her head and stared at the blue flames.

 _I hope Izuku and Kiba found Kota without any problems._

* * *

Kota shook in terror as he stared at the massive cloud of gas rolling over the forest beneath him. He could hear Mandalay calling for him with her telepathy but Kota knew he couldn't answer her. The problem with his Aunt's Quirk was that it wasn't the kind of quirk where she could hear the mental responses of the people.

" _Did you hear me, Kouta? Run back to the lodge right now! I am sorry, I don't know where you are always hiding and I am sorry that I can't go and look for you! There are a couple of villains holding us back. You have to run back now!"_

He twisted his body to run for the woods, only to stop dead with a shocked cry. Blocking his path was the huge, cloaked figure of Muscular, still donning his mask.

"Well look what we have here," Kouta felt the hairs of his neck stood up at the cold chuckle coming from Muscular. "I tried looking for a good spot to see the fight out and what do I find? A face I didn't see in the handout…"

Kouta felt his legs wobbled and he tried to will his legs to move, to run away from the hulking figure in front of him.

"…by the way you have great taste in hats, kid! Wouldya swap the hat for this lame-ass mask? I'm new and they didn't know if a mask could be delivered in time, so I gotta wear this dumb toy."

Kouta spun around and tried to flee in the opposite direction, but Muscular yanked his mask off and leapt after him. The hulking villain hit the rock face of the cliff and dove in front of Kouta, blocking his path.

Memories flashed through his head as he recalled of the news report that declared his parents. He recalled how hurt he was with the news report. He recalled the anger he felt as the reporters described and showed the picture of the villain who murdered his parents. At the time he thought he could get revenge but now staring at the bloodthirsty eyes of the villain, Kouta only felt fear.

All he could do was:

"Mom! Dad!" Muscular swung his huge fist at Kouta, intent on crushing him into a pulp.

"TSUUGA!"

A blur of motion swept between them and Izuku scooped Kouta up as Kiba and Akamaru smashed into the villain, causing him to tumble down. Kouta blinked, trying to recall if he ever saw those two in the sea of students.

"W-What's happening? And who are they?"

"We came to save you brat," Kiba called out, feral eyes locked on Muscular who seemed to be at a daze. The villain was currently lying on a bed of rocks caused by his fall. "Naruto wanted me to act backup for the kid over there," he jerked his head to Izuku. "But I am going to call the shots because no way a bunch of civilians can beat this guy."

Izuku cradled Kouta against his chest and stared at the feral boy Naruto ordered to go with them. His mind swirled with the new pieces of battle information. _He was able to use his Quirk to swirl his body like a tornado. It doesn't seem to be like other Quirks because he also seems to understand what his dog says. What exactly is his quirk?_

"You weren't on the list," Muscular grunted, his eyes darted towards Izuku. "But you were on the _list._ "

Izuku's eyes grew round while Kiba smirked, canine-like teeth flashed for the whole world to see. He flickered his eyes towards his busted phone. _If Naruto hadn't ask for this guy to come then I won't have any backup._ He didn't know how strong this Kiba guy was but Naruto seemed to have faith in his capabilities.

"You keep the kid safe," Kiba barked as Muscular pushed himself up from the rocks. "And I will deal with this asshole."

Izuku twisted to look at Kouta, the young boy had tears streaming down in his eyes. Running away with Kouta was the smart plan, it was the best plan to make for a hero but Izuku had no idea if this Kiba guy was capable of dealing with the villain. Naruto just told him to come but the guy had no idea what they were going to go against.

"It's okay, Kouta," Izuku reassured as Kiba glared at the villain. "We will save you no matter what."

"You say the both of you will save him no matter what? That sounds like what someone who wants to be a hero would say," Muscular laughed as his arm generate tissues to cover up the wound Kiba inflicted. The canine boy's eyes grew round as he swore up and down. "I presume you are the one named Midoriya then? Great but I don't know about your companion. He wasn't in the list but the boss never mentioned not to kill him."

Muscular lunged at Izuku with surprising speed for someone so large, almost pulverizing Izuku with a huge swing. Kiba smashed his fist against the man's face just before the man's punch could gaze his skin. The teen locked his eyes on the man and flickered his eyes to Akamaru who growled at the huge man.

"Your name is Izuku right? That is what Naruto calls you." Kiba twisted his head to look at him. "Hand the kid to Akamaru. I don't know what Naruto told you but my clan specialize with tracking, and Akamaru has never miss a scent before. He will send him back to his Aunt. You aren't light enough to be carried by Akamaru so you are going to stick by my side."

Izuku chewed on his lip and rushed towards the huge dog just as Muscular charged at them, fist swinging towards them.

" _Shikyaku no Jutsu!"_

Kiba smashed his body against Muscular just as Izuku placed Kouta on Akamaru's back. The dog barked before charging in the direction of the woods, its eyes never looking back to its master or at Izuku.

"Your first attack was faster and stronger," Muscular declared as he swung his arm at Kiba. The teen rolled over, dodging the full impact of the punch. "But this one doesn't have enough power. My Quirk is Muscle Enhancement: the speed and power of my muscle fibers are so over the top that my skin can't even contain them!"

Kiba's eyes flashed with understanding and the teen grinned.

"Didn't your mother ever tell you not to spill the secrets of your technique before? And Naruto was the dead last," Kiba flickered his eyes to Izuku. "You're the insane kid that has a strength that can nearly rival Naruto's right? I remembered you from the Sports Festival. It seems like I need your strength 'cuz Akamaru isn't here to help."

Izuku's eyes flashed with curiosity. "What's the plan?"

"Let's overwhelm this son of a bitch!"

* * *

 _Thank goodness I sent Hinata to deal with the poisonous gas._ Naruto jumped across the trees, never fully resting her feet on the tree's bark. Hinata was the most capable person when it came to dealing with the poisonous gas. With the Byakugan, her friend could make out their opponent and take him out quickly.

' _Leave it to me Naru-chan.'_

Naruto stopped jumping when the tree in front of her burned a brilliant shade of blue. It would be foolish of her to continue jumping when the flames loomed over her and were of a higher temperature than any fire jutsu Sasuke ever used on her. She glanced down to the ground and made her decision. She took a deep breath and plunged down to the ground, barely making a graceful landing.

She looked at the burning tree, wishing for the first time her jutsu arsenal contained a water jutsu. The wind affinity would do her no good in this situation, it would just only make it worse. She scanned the area, wondering where would the main culprit for the flame would go.

' _Naruto, are you sure you want to go there? You don't have any jutsu that can take out the fire!'_

Even after leaving her the way she did, Hinata still gave a shit about her. Naruto flickered her eyes to the direction of the forest area that had no flames. Taking a deep breath, she resumed her sprint. The chaos around her, the burning flames and the overwhelming despair radiating out of this forest made her wonder if this was just a smaller scale of the Kyuubi's attack.

Fire crackled all around her. It roared, flickered and shifted as if it was trying to come out of its placement. Naruto almost wished the fire were a brilliant shade of red, the same warm flames that Shouto only just begun to use.

She stopped running when she caught sight of two villains.

"Hey, hey, hey!" The masked villain staggered back several steps as he slapped his clothed covered fingers over his cheeks. If Naruto could take a guess about their ages, she presumed they would be in the same age range as Itachi. "This—this is insane. No, it isn't. We've got a hero charging right toward us—wasn't the fire suppose to keep them away from us, Dabi?"

"It was supposed to," _Dabi_ replied. Naruto took a step back as turquoise eyes locked onto her very own eyes. _They look like Shouto's eyes._ The time she spent with Shouto, the length of time she observed her friend's eyes was enough for her to see the similarities between them. Shouto had siblings but he never really talked about them.

Naruto never pushed him to talk about it because she knew how touchy he felt about his parents.

"You're the girl with the Quirk similar to Twice," Dabi continued, eyes locked on her own. "She is quite dangerous."

"You!" Her eyes shot towards the masked villain—Twice. His fingers gestured eagerly to her and Naruto narrowed her eyes, waiting to hear what the man had to say. If they were eager to fight her then they would have done it immediately, but for some reason they were avoiding her. "Hey, you! Girly, you're not on the kill list! Dabi, I am not dreaming right? No, no—ok. This is the one. The one we need to take because of her Quirk—she's here to fight us."

Naruto clenched her hands into a fist as the Kyuubi's voice roared at the man's words.

 _Kill list._

"You plan to murder my friends." Naruto clenched her hands into fist and stared at the two villains. Izuku's determined face flashed behind her eyes. Mina as she teased her about her feelings. Jirou recommending her new songs for her to hear in the radio. Everything unfolded behind her eyes and another memory flashed through her mind.

The memory of Sasuke and her fight.

"You are messing with the wrong bitch tonight," Naruto declared, channeling her chakra into her arms. Her arm throbbed with energy, ready to be unleashed on the two villains that seemed intent on capturing her. "If you think I am going to come quietly then you better be prepared to lose a couple of limbs."

She slammed her fist into the ground, knocking down the two villains and the ground to crack into pieces. Blue eyes flashed with determination as her mind swirled with ideas on how to capture the villains and to send them to jail. She knew Mandalay ordered them not to fight, not to engage with them but those assholes wanted to murder them.

"I thought Shigaraki was joking when he said the girl had a punch which could rival All Might," Twice complained, gulping at the cracked ground. Twice skirted away and jerked out sharp, hardened measuring tapes from his wrist. Naruto weaved her hands together, blood pumping through her ears as she summoned a hundred copies of herself.

"She is insane—she is kind of smart," Twice ducked from her clones and his eyes flashed with both curiosity and amusement. "Which one of you is the real one? They are all copies."

Her clones stopped what they were doing, eyes flickering at each other as they tried to determine which one of them was the original copy. The original Naruto swore under her breath, rolling to her side when Twice directed his measuring tape towards her.

"That is the problem with clones, you don't know if you are the original or the co…"

Naruto snorted. "Maybe for your Quirk but I know damn well which one of us is the original."

Twice grinned and swung the measuring tape at her.

 _Pop._

"What the…"

Naruto locked her arm around Twice and smashed him to the ground, blue eyes glinting with pure adulted rage for what the man tried to commit. "Interesting fact for the day: Kakashi-sensei already pulled that trick on me in my genin exam. If you think I am an idiot that falls for the same trap twice then you don't know Naruto Uzumaki."

"You talk big," Dabi commented. Fire erupted off his shoulder and Naruto frowned, noticing with a deeper realization the similarities between Dabi's quirk with Shouto's fire side of his quirk. "Think you can deal with the both of us? There must be a limit about the number of clones you can make."

"We can go out it the whole day then bastard." Naruto flickered her eyes to her clones. _Distraction_. _I need to make a distraction so that my clones can make the tree seal to bind him to this spot._ "So what is your sob story for becoming a villain? Mummy and Daddy didn't love you enough?"

Turquoise eyes showed no emotion but Naruto frowned, something was telling her that something wasn't right.

Why could she not feel any rage from him?

"Or were you the disappointment in your family?" Naruto nodded her head as the flames became larger and brighter. "You must have tried so hard to get Daddy's attention but you weren't good enough. You were never going to be good enough for him."

' _You're projecting the Uchiha's backstory onto him'_

She was just projecting the issues every unwanted child had when it came to parents.

It was just pure coincidence she used Sasuke's issues with his father.

Naruto felt her lips twitched when her clone gave her the signal. Nipping her fingers, the blonde drew the character of Wood, channeled her chakra to the character and watched as the tree branches shoot out of the ground. The branches weaved together, intertwining and locking the boy in place.

Only for the boy to disintegrate.

Now Naruto knew what it was like to be on the receiving end of the Shadow Clone Jutsu.

It was not fun.

' _Students in Class A and B!"_ Naruto straightened her back as Mandalay shouted desperately in her mind " _As a message from Pro Hero Eraser Head, you are granted permission to engage in combat! I repeat, everyone in Class A and B—"_

Naruto looked at the disintegrated mud and grimaced.

' _You are granted permission to engage in combat.'_

 _Good I am not going to get scolded by Aizawa-sensei when he realize that I sent two other people to attack._ Naruto slipped her hands into her pocket, eyes focused on the moonlit sky. The permission reassured her but it also troubled her. Ero-Sennin might not be struggling but knowing Aizawa he probably made certain that the man guarded her classmates.

" _We have discovered two of the villains' targets."_ Mandalay continued and Naruto froze. " _It is two of the students—Kacchan and Uzumaki Naruto from Class A! Kacchan and Uzumaki should try to avoid combat and not act independently, especially Uzumaki.'_

Naruto felt her whole world turned blank at those words.

Only three thoughts run through her mind:

 _It feels like Orochimaru all over again._

 _I can't let them capture Bakugou._

 _I won't fail this time around._

* * *

 **A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter.**


	44. Chapter 44

**A/N: I want to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows.**

* * *

 **(15 minutes earlier)**

 _This bastard is annoying._

Kiba panted and rubbed the sweat off his forehead as Izuku swung his arm at the hulking man. They had been at it for a good ten minutes and nothing they seemed to do was slowing down those muscle fibres. He pressed his fingers to the smoke bombs in his pocket, toying with them. This guy was almost fun to fight with but that green eyed friend of Naruto looked like he might pass out soon.

Naruto would be so pissed with him if anything happens to the guy,

"Seeing you struggle like this makes me excited," Muscular rolled his arms a few times. The maniac-like smile on his lips made Kiba want to growl at him. The man paused, eyes lightening up as if he just recalled something. "I almost forgot why I came here, do the two of you happen to know where the children Uzumaki and Bakugou are? My boss wants them. He is practically interested in Uzumaki, says her Quirk is really something."

 _Naruto._

Kiba growled, hands clenched into his fist as green eyes grew round with fear and anger. _What the hell did Naruto do this time for her to get mix up with this shit?_ There was no way the girl he used to skip classes would be stupid enough to get mix up with the wrong crowd. For all the insults he used to give Naruto, the girl wasn't actually an idiot or weak.

It took her beating his ass in the Chunin Exams to realize this.

"I will take that as I don't know." Muscular charged at him, legs spread apart as if he was ready to smash them into pieces. Kiba swore under his breath, pulled out the smoke bomb and smashed it to the ground. He tucked his legs and rolled over before grabbing Izuku. _I definitely can't let this guy escape not when he is after Naruto._

"Are we going to run away?" Izuku demanded. "He is after Naruto and Kacchan."

Kiba furiously shook his head, brown eyes locked on the figure. If this guy was capable of murdering them then he would consider it. For all the insults Naruto used to throw at him when it came to his brains, Kiba wasn't reckless enough to want the deaths of the people around him.

"I don't give a shit about your Kacchan but the bastard has to go through Team Eight if he wants to take Naruto." Green eyes widened at his words and Kiba locked his eyes on the hulking figure. "Why the fuck do you look surprise? Just because I call her a bitch, doesn't mean I hate her. It is like when she calls me Dog Breath, I know that is her way of annoying shit out of me. Don't you have someone that gives you insulting nicknames but you know it is their way of showing they like you?"

Green eyes flashed with hesitant understanding.

"So you know why I am going to give my 100% when I fight this shitty guy." Kiba placed his two index and middle fingers together, channelling his chakra throughout his body. "But not without finding out what Naruto did to get mix up with this kind of shit."

"Wait," Izuku pulled the sleeve of his shirt, green eyes flashed with determination as he focused on Muscular. The giant man was still stuck in the purple fog, arms swinging at the mountain. Rocks rained down, barely causing a dent on the man muscle armour. "I got an idea. Overwhelming him hasn't done us any good since his arms and shoulders are covered with thick muscular fibres. Attacking him there won't do you any good but if we attack him—"

"—On the head then it might save us this pain." Kiba finished, brown eyes lighting up at this information. _Why didn't I think about that?_ He flickered his eyes to the sweating boy. The reckless determination flashing through those green eyes almost remind him of Naruto and Hinata. His friends had the same flash of determination whenever they had an idea in their head.

Naruto had it more than Hinata.

Hinata knew when not to push things even if the Chunin Exams did not show it all that well.

"We will do it as soon as the smoke evaporates." Kiba sniffed the smoke and a small frown play on his lips. _Five minutes. We have got only five minutes before the bastard realize we are not in the smoke._ If he had Akamaru by his side then he could immediately attack the bastard but his friend needed to guide that crying kid out of here.

While Kiba respected Izuku for giving his all against this bastard, the kid probably had no idea on how to attack in a smoke bomb.

When the last of the smoke slowly evaporated, revealing the maniac eyes of Muscular. Kiba flickered his eyes to Izuku, nodded at him and began to twist his body around like a tornado. He could see a flash of green lights surrounding Izuku as he clenched his hands into a tight ball of fist, eyes flashing with determination.

"100% Detroit Smash!"

"Tsuguu!"

It was a clean shot and it dealt a catastrophic damage.

Muscular was pulverized into the dirt and sent skidding through the mountain walls with such force that his body was buried headfirst up to his waist. Kiba relaxed his body, slumped down to the ground and wiped his forehead. His body felt limp, lifeless and drained from the fight. For a brief moment he contemplated sleeping because he must have barely reached his limit with Tsuguu.

Taking a deep breath, Kiba popped a chakra pill into his mouth.

"You're all right Izuku?" Kiba pushed himself up and wiped the dust off his clothes. Brown eyes widened at the state of the boy's right arm. _How the hell did that happen? Naruto definitely can't blame me for this._ Limp arm hanged on Izuku's sides, decorated with bruises and blood. Kiba was no medical nin but he knew there was no way that one punch could do this.

"You just threw a punch and this shit happens!" Kiba groaned and picked the boy up, placing him on his back. There was no time for him to finish that guy up not when the kid looked like he needed to get some help. "You guys got a medic right? Because I have no knowledge in this shit. We usually let Hinata deal with this."

"I can't go back to the lodge."

Kiba twisted and growled at the boy. "Are you an idiot? You can't fight with those wounds."

"That guy was definitely way stronger than the two of us thought," Izuku huffed and Kiba scowled. "If all the villains are at his level then everyone is in danger. There is a chance that all of the students are their targets and I need to tell Aizawa-sensei and the Pussycats."

There was no way Kiba could argue with his words.

Izuku shifted around till he felt comfortable on Kiba's back. "If I can save them by acting now then I need to, don't I?" He jerked his head to the fallen villain. "My right arm is crap now but the power of my punch and your Quirk should be enough to knock him out for the whole night even then I don't think he will be able to move."

' _I bet you are a monster!'_

' _I'm Uzumaki Naruto and I'm gonna be the future Hokage."_

Kiba could still vividly remember the day Naruto defended Hinata, the determination and anger in her blue eyes as the civilian kids bullied her. He wanted to save Hinata but Naruto beat him to it. The girl made several pathetic clones in an attempt to terrify the other students to submission but it failed. Instead of running away like a coward, Naruto just held her ground and proceeded to beat everyone into a pulp.

That was the day everyone called Naruto a mini-Tsunade because the ground cracked under the pressure of her punch. Those bullies were sent to the hospital with several broken limbs and several teeth missing. Even when the odds were stacked against her, his friend would do everything in her power to turn things around and act like some kind of hero.

When Kiba really thought about it, Naruto always tried to save people at the moment even when the odds were against her.

It seemed like this guy was the same.

He could honestly respect that.

* * *

Aizawa stopped running when he caught sight of his most reckless student being carried away by some feral teen. Red eyes narrowed as his cloth wrapped around the kid, binding around his body to restrain him. Several curses were emitted by the teen as he tried to struggle out of here

"Sensei, it isn't what it looks like!" Izuku cried as the feral teen swore in a colourful language which almost rivalled Bakugou. Aizawa twisted the teens at him, arms folded against his chest and his feet tapped against the ground. "Kiba-kun here helped me to save Kouta."

"And why would he do that?" He locked his eyes on the feral boy, scanning for any signs the kid was truly as good as Midoriya believed. Red eyes narrowed at the insignia on the boy's headband. _Jiraiya-san mentioned that shinobis from a hidden village had an insignia around their headband._ His head throbbed with realization. "You are after Uzumaki."

"We put that on hold." Red eyes grew slightly larger while Kiba flickered his eyes from the burning-part of the forest to the part of the forest covered in poisonous gas. "Naruto asked us for help and Hinata just immediately agreed to help her instead of trying to first convince her to come back home and then helping her."

Aizawa frowned and regarded the feral boy in front of him, noting down the extent of his injuries. Scratches and bruises decorated his face but the confidence and concern in those black eyes told him volumes of how much he cared for Uzumaki and his friend. The boy could simply refuse the quest yet he decided to follow what Uzumaki asked.

Despite what Uzumaki believed, she did have people who cared for her.

The question now were they willing to understand Uzumaki no longer had the desire to go home? Could they try to understand Uzumaki's reason? Or would they ignore her wishes and try to bring her back home? Aizawa could only wait and see but when they confront her after the whole thing was over. He would be there and he would make sure Uzumaki had the support she needed.

"Are you going to let go of me now? I need to get Akamaru back." The bindings around Kiba and Izuku loosened, falling gently to the ground. Aizawa pulled the cloth back to its original position, fixing it as the two boys turned to the direction of where the Pussycat dolls were. Aizawa locked his eyes on the bruise around Izuku's arm and then glanced at the other bruised boy beside him. "Wait you two."

The two boys froze and slowly turned to face him.

"You did it again, right Midoriya? Even with his help?" Green eyes grew round and Aizawa sighed. "Tell Mandalay to convey this message to all the students in the area: the students of both Class A and Class B have permission to defend themselves with their Quirks."

Even with the addition of the shinobi, they would not be capable of defending all the students. Jiraiya admitted himself that if there was one good punch of his clone then it would disappear. Uzumaki was talented but the girl would be reckless enough to throw her life away. She might have grown emotionally and mentally from the first month but Aizawa knew Uzumaki would go through hell to protect her friends and fellow classmates.

It was not Uzumaki's fault.

The girl just couldn't help herself.

* * *

Hinata stopped running when she caught sight of two students charging after her. Lips curled into thin line, she dodged the swung fist and grabbed hold of it. She twisted it around, pressing the arm against the back and strided against his back. Twisting her head, Hinata glared at the orange-haired girl who took several steps back and green eyes widened at the sight of her mask.

"Who are you?"

"I am here to help." Hinata declared and orange eyebrows raised at her declaration, green eyes flickered to the tight grip that she had on the arm. Hinata sighed and let go of the boy's arm, swinging her legs back and dusting the dirt off her jacket. "Naruto asked me to help."

"Naru-chan sent you but why would she…"

"Long story...no time to explain." Hinata waved off the explanation and locked her eyes to the north where the target was. He looked like he was around their age, frame structure suggested he was not good with a combat. How did this Kekkai Genkai work? Would the Kekkai Genkai really stop if she knock him out? Uncertainty was not something she liked. "Just know I am going to knock out the guy."

"How do you know he is a boy?" Itsuka questioned.

Hinata pointed to her eyes. "My eyes allows me to see through this mist and currently the target is a couple of hundred meters away from us. Naruto sent me because out of everyone in this camp, I am the only one that can see through this mist."

"Of course a member of Class A would send someone else." The boy grumbled. "It is not like she thinks a member of Class B can deal with this."

Hinata narrowed her eyes. "Naru-chan sent me here because she is worried out of her mind for everyone. She probably didn't think about your feelings about this, if anything she doesn't want a repeat of the past."

Green eyes flashed with concern and white teeth bit her lips but the orange-haired girl made no attempt to question her. The concern faded and determination replaced it. Hinata flickered her eyes to their target, lips curled into a frown when she realized there was a black strange weapon on his hands. It might have been three weeks but Hinata still had not learned everything about this world.

"I will need your help."

"Didn't Naru-chan ask you to help?"

Hinata chewed on her bottom lip, lips curled into a frown as her eyes focused on his body. There was no chakra system for her to attack, nothing for her to cause damage. Pressing the pressure points would be enough but if she was not careful then he might kill a student. These people were innocent and she would not allow one of Naruto's friends get hurt.

These students were determined to fight these people even if Hinata was capable of knocking them out.

* * *

 _I should have asked Shino to come with me instead of going with Momo and Awase._ Naruto looked around the forest, eyes searching for any signs of her fellow blonde and ears perked for the constant insults he threw to Shouto. Time was of the essence. The moment she slowed down would be the moment those people were going to win.

She could see the poisonous gas from the left side slowly fading away, telling her that either Hinata or one of the other students managed to find the asshole and take him out. She nipped her finger again, dropping the blood to her left palm and a kunai appeared in the flash of white light. Naruto grabbed the kunai handle and swing it around.

Blue eyes widened at the sound of a gunshot coming from the other direction.

Naruto increased her speed, blood pumping against her ears as her heart throbbed with fear. Bakugou's scowls, insults and his yells flashed through her mind. She winced slightly as the branches scratched her arms. _Got to save that ass. Got to save them. I can't make the same mistake again._ She failed the first time with Sasuke. Failed because she did not try to understand what he wanted.

Bakugou would fight them tooth and nail but Naruto knew he was not strong enough to defeat these villains.

She stumbled but Naruto pushed herself up and resumed charging after the gunshot sound. There was a possibility the gun was directed to Bakugou and Shouto. Her hair slapped her cheeks as if trying to tell her to stop allowing her emotions to grab hold of her. Emotions meant she could not think with logic and logic was needed in a battle.

Naruto slapped her cheeks and reminded her to focus on the problem itself.

Blue eyes widened as a black shadow like claw swung at her. The whiskered girl rolled over as the claw knocked over the trees. Clutching her chest, Naruto looked wildly at the claws. _Tokoyami._ Only her classmate was capable of doing this. No one else had a shadow creature under his control except him. _But why? How could this be possible?_ Naruto rolled over again as the claw attempted to grab her.

"Naruto!"

Naruto blinked her eyes as Shoji's arm grabbed hold of her, swinging her to the side of the forest. She winced as her back slammed against the tree. She slid down to the bushes and blue eyes widened at the sight of Kiba and Izuku crouching under the bushes, their eyes weary and exhausted from what just happened.

She regarded Shoji and her eyes widened at the blood dripping down of his limbless arm. _What the hell happened here?_ Naruto peeked out of the bushes, heart racing against her chest as she tried to make sense on how Tokoyami lost control of Dark Shadow.

"You look like shit." Naruto regarded Kiba, blue eyes grew large at the smile playing on her childhood friend's face. The relief in those black eyes almost made Naruto stumble out of the bush but Shoji's arm grabbed hold of her, steadying her as her brain tried to make sense of the smile.

"I'm glad we found you," Izuku huffed. "Naruto, these villains are—"

"Yeah I got the memo." Naruto shook her head and flickered her eyes to Dark Shadow who seemed hell bent on attacking them. "We need to find Explosive Head and Shouto."

She searched her pockets, her clothes for anything that could help them track those two. Bakugou and her weren't close, never had been and she had nothing that belonged to Shouto. She couldn't even use the fox Shouto gave since it was covered with her scent. Something else. There had to be a scent that Kiba could use to track them.

There had to be something she could use.

"Naruto," Izuku began. His eyes searched her as if he knew she was not actually okay and Naruto dimly wondered if Kiba spilled the beans about her past to him. "Are you hurt? And where is Hinata-san? And Shino-san?"

Naruto dropped her hands, lips curled into a thin line and regarded the two boys beside her. Both of them had dirt, sweat and even some blood clinging to them, showcasing the damage they went through to protect Kouta. Green eyes flashed with concern while black eyes shone with anger at her quietness. Telling them the truth was the right decision but Kiba was going to be pissed with her.

"I sent Shino to help protect Momo and Awase." The two teens relaxed. "And Hinata-chan…I asked her to deal with the villain making the poisonous gas."

"Hinata will be the best in dealing with the poisonous gas." Naruto relaxed, her shoulders slumping downwards as her eyes regarded Dark Shadow who stood across them. She pressed her hand against the scarred tissue Sasuke inflicted on her, feeling the throbbing pain. Why was it acting up now? In the three years, her wound never bothered her.

"I told you that she was going to act alone." Naruto jerked her head to Kiba. The older boy folded his chest, a smirk playing on his lips and she really wished to smash that knowing grin off his face. "But it is a good thing you didn't encounter any villains because those guys are insane."

"I encounter them." Three sets of eyes widened at her declaration. "And they got away from me."

"So you know—"

"—that they are after me and Explosive Head? Ya." Naruto looked away from Kiba's searching eyes, focusing her attention on Dark Shadow. Did Dog Breath have the same thought as her? Did he also have a sense of déjà vu? Because all Naruto could remember was the day Shikamaru told her about Sasuke's defection. "We need to find him and we need to guard him at all costs."

"I can't make the same mistake again."

" _We_ can't make the same mistake again." Naruto swirled to look at Kiba. Black eyes flashed with remorse and understanding, making her wonder if he still recalled their failure to bring Sasuke back. Did he feel the same sense of guilt? The same sense of uselessness? She never really bothered to ask him or the others about their feelings. "We aren't going to make the same mistake again."

She had been so self-centred.

"I am sorry."

Kiba snorted. "I am not the one you owe an apology to: it's Hinata."

 _I know._ Naruto swallowed down her lump and looked away from her friends. There were a lot of people she owed an apology to: Tsunade, Kakashi-sensei, Shikamaru, Choji, Neji but most of all she needed to say sorry to Hinata. Even when she stopped responding to the world around her, Hinata kept visitng her and trying to get her to talk to her.

Her friend never gave up on her.

"Do you guys have a plan on how to defeat Dark Shadow? I never really bothered to analyse how it works."

Shoji's eyes turned forward. "Midoriya and Inuzaka wants to go save Bakugou and you. Midoriya's injuries aren't as bad as they look but he won't be able to run to the best of his ability. With the two of us, I think we can make it and it would be better too since they are after you. Also since Tokoyami's Quirk is weak with light, I believe that you can…"

"You want me to lead Dark Shadow away and use the Rasengan, don't you?" Shoji nodded and Naruto rubbed her chin.

"I am not leaving you behind Naruto so I will help you lead that thing away." Naruto's head turned to Kiba. She paused, taking in the fierce determination of his black eyes. She glanced at Izuku who held the same determined look as her former classmate.

"I want to save Bakugou and Tokoyami." Izuku admitted, bowing his head slightly. "I'm sorry Kiba and Naruto, I can't let you out of my sight either."

"I can take—"

"Let someone else help you for once." Izuku begged, shifting his arm with a wince and Kiba helped the boy up. Naruto regarded her classmate, blue eyes torn into giving in to his demands or to continue acting like a lone soldier. _We lost Sasuke because we separated from each other._ Working together might just increase their odds, wouldn't it? "I have a plan, Naruto."

"I am all ears."

* * *

"There is some ice and it looks like they are in a middle of a fight!"

"Can't you run a little bit slower Naruto?"

Naruto could only put her middle finger up as Kiba twisted his head to look at her, taking joy of the fact she couldn't even run slowly. Her arms pumped at her side while Izuku rode Shoji's back, Kiba running beside her. She really should have never agreed to Izuku's plans, curiosity be damned because running slow was a pain in the neck.

Dark Shadow's claw swiped at the earth and trees, destroying everything in her power. Behind her, Naruto could hear Tokoyami groaning. She gritted her teeth, attempting to run slower as the clearing broke through. Blue eyes focused on the frosty air, noting down the ice that covered the top of the trees, heavy slabs of ice formed a barrier from the ground.

Blue eyes widened at the sight of Tsuburaba hunging over Shouto's back. She felt the tension leave when she saw the boys were alive.

"Bakugou! Todoroki!" Shoji shouted. "Please, either of you—we need some light!"

"Really quick guys!"

"Naruto!" Shouto shouted, mismatched eyes widened. "Midoriya, Shoji, _Tokoyami_ and who is the guy beside you?

"I will explain as soon as you calm down Dark Shadow."

"Kacchan!" Izuku yelled and Bakugou stiffened.

"Flesh!"

Naruto twisted her head to look behind her. Her head throbbed as sharp, jagged tendrils lunging out and slicing through her cheeks. A man wrapped in chains and a thick, leather suit swung in the air. His teeth pierced outwards, propping him up as he groaned, chanting as he swung towards them. "Flesh…such pretty flesh!"

"He is a psycho!" Kiba yelled. Naruto held the kunai up in the air as the tendrils tried again to cut her cheeks. Gritting her teeth, Naruto channelled her chakra but before she could even attack the villain, a wall of ice enclosed her and Kiba.

"You need to stay away from him Naruto!" Shouto yelled. Glaciers erupted from his feet, creating a wall between her and the villain. Lifting her head upwards, Naruto took a good look at the guy attacking them. The Rasengan could be used against him. It was her best bet right now but the sight of Dark Shadow enclosing on the villain made her hesitate.

A villain was one thing but if she missed him then the Rasengan would land on Dark Shadow. The possibility of hurting Dark Shadow made her stomach rolled. Just as the Kyuubi was somewhat a part of her, Dark Shadow was an extension of Tokoyami.

Would the Rasengan hurt him?

Naruto couldn't take the chance, she just couldn't do it.

Hurting her classmate was a big no for her.

A heavy, shadowed claw slammed into the earth with a deep shudder. The ground beneath them trembled. Ice cracking to pieces, trees splintering beneath the force and their eyes went wide as Dark Shadow pinned the villain between its claw like nothing more than a bug.

"Wait Whiskers."

"Did he really call you, Whiskers?" Kiba asked, eyebrows raised and a smirk playing on his lips. Naruto glared, her eyes stilted at the older boy who had the decency to flinch at her.

The villain's teeth slowly began to help him stand, jagged ends digging into the earth. "Flesh…Piece of meat…It's no good…I can't allow it. I'm the only one who's allowed to look at a cross-section of those kids… _don't steal them from me!"_

His bladed teeth shot outwards. Naruto whistled, the jagged pieces piercing harmlessly through Dark Shadow's raised claw. He easily defended both himself and Tokoyami, turning one massive, glaring head at the villain.

Dark Shadow's claw clamped down onto the man's body without mercy. " _Don't beg. Small fry!"_

"Damn." Kiba whistled.

Dark Shadow's clawed hand whipped backwards, plowing forward in one fell swoop. His roars echoed through the entire clearing as rows of trees were mowed down in an instant. His claws unfurled, releasing the jagged, limp body and his broken, split jaw. The villain crashed into a tree trunk, head smashed backwards with tremendous force and them falling to the ground without another word.

" _I haven't had enough fun yet!"_ Dark Shadow roared.

 _This almost reminds me of Gaara and how he used to call Shukaku mother._ Naruto pulled Kiba up and gestured for him to leap over the ice. He held his middle finger to her but did as she demanded. Naruto follow suit just as Bakugou and Shouto raced forward, their palms blazing with flames as they charged towards Tokoyami.

Dark Shadow whimpered, shrinking into a thin shadow until Tokoyami collapsed onto his knees with a shaky exhale, hands digging into the ground.

"I'm a bad match-up for you." Bakugou declared.

Shouto's flames flickered out from his fingers.

"Sorry…" Tokoyami panted. "Thanks for saving me."

Naruto chewed on her bottom lip, staring at the wounded villain across her and then to Kiba. Her friend picked up the unconscious boy Shouto had been carrying, black eyes focused on her short classmate. His eyes almost seemed slightly guilty as the others tried to reassure him that they were just happy he was fine. She looked away, not knowing what to say. What could she say? If she had no clue why he felt guilty then Naruto could never talked.

"I'm sorry everyone." Tokoyami bowed his head deep. "I'm too immature…when I saw your extra arm get injured, I let my anger take over and released Dark Shadow. The influence of darkness and my anger drove Dark Shadow and he put all of you in danger—"

"We all got monsters that we can't control." Tokoyami jerked his head as Naruto strolled to her classmate, a smile playing on her lips as she gave him a hug. "But it is okay. We know that it isn't your fault."

"Naruto, who is this?" Mismatch eyes locked on her as her friends focused their attention on Kiba. Naruto chewed on her bottom lip, eyebrows knitted together and forehead scrunched. There was a temptation to lie to everyone but Izuku heard Kiba talked about Konoha. She told Shouto about her past and her classmates were going to find out about Team Eight or had already found out. "Is he a villain?"

She really couldn't lie to them.

"If I was a fucking villain then I wouldn't have wasted my time helping Izuku or keeping Akamaru with that terrified kid." Kiba roared, glowing at her friend. Naruto pressed her fingers against the sides of her forehead, her fingers gently rubbed the sides of her forehead.

"Can you keep your voice down Mutt? You are not the only one with sensitives ears here."

Kiba smiled sheepishly, black eyes shone with apology and Naruto could only shake her head. Memories of their pranks and their skipping activities flashed behind her eyes. Her lips curled upwards slightly, her heart tightened and all Naruto could do was to thank God for the fact he hadn't completely changed from her memories.

"Everyone meet Kiba—he is an old friend from school. Kiba meet everyone." Naruto flickered her eyes to Kiba, wondering if it was actually true. She used to consider him a friend in some way but he never really defended her from those bullies, never really spent time with her. He used to skip classes with her and gave her ideas for her pranks but that was just it. "I will explain what is happening once we get everyone out of here. If I am going to explain myself then I want to do it in one go."

Naruto didn't even know if Kiba ever actually considered her a friend.

"Kiba-kun helped me protect Kouta and search for Naruto." Blue eyes widened while Kiba rolled his eyes. Izuku grimaced. "We confirmed that two of the villain's targets are Kacchan and Naruto."

"Which one of them is Kacchan?" Kiba whispered as his eyes flickered between the remaining boy. Naruto grinned and pointed to the scowling blond-haired boy. Black eyes widened and Kiba jerked his head at her, lips curled into a scowl. "That's Kacchan? I thought it was a pretty girl."

Naruto pressed her lips into a thin line. "Well now you know Kacchan is a boy and if you even think of acting like a dog to any of the girls…"

"Oi I am faithful to Hinata." Blue eyes widened and she raised her eyebrow at him. Kiba rubbed the back of his neck, cheeks flushed as he avoided her eyes. _I will ask Hinata about the details._ The corner of her lips tugged forward as her eyes memorized the flush cheeks from her childhood friend. Kiba blinked at her. "You are not going to question me about my feelings about her? I always imagined if Hinata and me ever get together that you would want me to prove myself."

Naruto shook her head and smiled softly at him, her blue eyes focused on Shouto. Three years ago, she probably would have demanded proof of how much he loved Hinata. She probably thought if he proved to her then she would know just how much he cared for Hinata. The proof of his love for Hinata was the fact he was standing right beside her, willing to save her friends.

Kiba didn't like it when someone gave him orders but he didn't make a huge fuss when Hinata told them to follow her wishes.

"Are they trying to kill you?" Shouto demanded, drawing the two teens attention to him. His mismatch eyes flashed with concern and Naruto's heart throbbed at the realization that her friend was anxious about her safety.

Kiba flickered his eyes from her to Shouto as if he was trying to figure something out.

"They plan to kidnap us."

Everyone turned their heads to her.

Naruto pushed her hair back, rubbed the sides of her head as those turquoise eyes flashed behind her eyes. Shouto stiffened, eyes flashed with concern while Bakugou gritted his teeth. Kiba grimaced and focused his eyes on the tree bark. _He is also probably thinking of that last mission we had together._ She clenched her hands into a fist.

"They want me because of my chakra." Naruto's hand hovered over her stomach earning several confused looks from her classmates and Kiba. Mismatch eyes lingered on her stomach, eyebrows knitted together at her. Shouto turned to look at her, a raised eyebrow directed her. _Do the villains know?_ Naruto weakly shrugged her shoulder.

How could she know?

She prayed to god that they didn't know.

"What the hell did you do this time? First Orochimaru attacked your team in the Chunin Exams and now some insane people are after you?"

"You think I know why they are after me, Dog Breath? I am in the same boat as you!" Naruto folded her arms against her chest. She felt like tugging her hair again, to stomp her foot and swear loudly about the luck given to her by Kami. All she wanted was just one nice week of camp with her friends before she told Itachi her decision about Sasuke.

She just wanted to act like a normal teenager.

"At any rate, we need to make our way back to the lodge…Aizawa-sensei, Vlad and Jiraiya…"

"Is he talking about—"

"—Ero-Sennin? Yup." Kiba wrinkled his nose, looking put out at the knowledge Jiraiya was also here. Shouto raised his eyebrow and the blonde flashed him a smile before looking out at the forest. If they made out of this without anyone getting kidnapped then it would be a miracle. If everyone made out of here alive then she got a lot of explaining to do.

She was definitely not looking for ward it.

"So our mission now is to escort Bakugou and Naruto back to safety?" Tokoyami asked.

"It is your turn to be the damsel in distress, Naruto." Kiba grinned and nudged her ribs, earning a scowl from the blonde. Shouto tilted his head, eyebrows stitched together as if he was trying to figure out something very important. Naruto just tilted her head and raised her eyebrow at her friend who just tore his eyes away from them.

Bakugou stiffed, whipping his head back at them in disbelief.

"The fuck?"

"We will have to be careful since the Pussycats are still fighting the villains at the clearing." Izuku rubbed his chin while Kiba grimaced. "If we take the path leading towards them then we will get noticed by the villains and we will lose time. The best course of action will be to cut a line straight through."

"We don't know how many villains there are." Shouto said softly, his eyes locked on her. "There is a chance we will encounter some villains in the middle of nowhere."

"That's where we have Shouji and Kiba's tracking ability," Kiba jerked his head at the boy while Bakugou swirled his head at them, trying to understand what was happening. "And we have also your ice, Todoroki. And if Tokoyami is alright with it then we have an invincible Dark Shadow with controls we can handle. Naruto can also make copies of herself and disguise them so she can help distract them. She also has the Rasengan."

Bakugou's head swung roughly between each of them.

 _Focus on the present._ Naruto's eyes hardened and she stared at Kiba. He looked back at her and there was a silent agreement between them.

An agreement to not make the same mistakes again with this mission.

 _No failure this time around._

"We have Bakugou and Naruto with us." Shouto said. "They are the ones they want. If we keep them out of their hands, we win."

"With a line up like this," Izuku surmised, coming to stand at the front of their huddle with Shoji and Kiba. Tokoyami flanked the back and Bakugou and Naruto stood side by side. In front of them was Shouto. "Even All Might would have a run for his money."

"What the hell is this all about?" Bakugou roared.

"We are protecting your ass." Kiba flipped.

"You just stay in the middle." Shouto said flatly.

"I don't need anyone's fucking protection!"

"For once in your damn life, put your ego in the backburner and accept help!" Naruto grumbled, lifting Tsuburaba onto her back.

"Don't fall behind." Shouto added, glancing at her as they began to walk forward.

"Fuck you!"

"I didn't know you swung that way, Explosive Head!"

"Screw you!"

* * *

A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter.


	45. Chapter 45

A/N: I want to thank everyone that reviewed and added this story to their favourites and follows.

* * *

"Are you okay?"

Naruto chewed on her bottom lip as Shouto's eyes focused on the trail in front of them. Kiba stole a glance at them, black eyes shining with concern and confusion about the question. She gestured for her friend to look ahead, to focus on making sure no villains were coming towards them. Shoji stole a glance at them before resuming watch for any incoming villains.

Shouto's eyes burned with concern.

"I didn't waste too much time fighting those villains." Naruto pressed her hands against her pockets, ignoring the unimpressed look from her friend. She sighed. "I will think about it later. There is no time for me to think about how I feel about the whole thing."

Shouto's eyes focused on Kiba and Naruto could practically feel his unease about the whole thing. There wasn't much Naruto could do to tell him she was fine. She would be lying if she said she was fine about the presence of Team Eight. She would also be lying if she said she was upset. Hinata had been her best friend growing up and seeing her made her so happy.

Even though she was over the moon to see Hinata, a part of her felt weary of what it meant. The presence of Team Eight meant there was a possibility of the other rookies being here. Was Team Ten also in Japan? Did Kakashi-sensei and Sakura come with them? It made her worry about what was in store for them. It had been an impossible dream for her to think maybe Konoha would just leave her alone.

Although she questioned the way they think.

One minute they wanted to exile her and the next minute they wanted her back.

 _I shouldn't think about why the council changed their mind about me._ Naruto pressed her hands against her chest and then dropped her hand to her side. _I need to focus on protecting Bakugou and myself. Once this shit is over then I will think about their actions. Just one step at a time._

She couldn't allow herself to think about the council's change of heart. There was just no time to think about what this meant for her. No time for her to think about how to convince Team Eight or the other potential teams that she wasn't ever going to go back there. She had a life to protect and she needed to do her best on protecting Explosive Head.

Everyone seemed to have the same thoughts because they didn't even try to bring up the reason Kiba was here.

Her eyes stole a glance to Bakugou. The older teen trudged behind them, lips curved down into a furious scowl as he shuffled his feet, hands shoved deep into his pocket.

 _What would they gain from taking Bakugou?_ Her eyes danced to Kiba who held his nose up as he sniffed the area for any potential villains. _Is it because he is one of the strongest members of our class? But then they would also go for Shouto, Izuku or even some of the others. Izuku is also someone that Shigaraki hates—he did threaten him after all. It make sense if he wants him dead and Shouto…because he's Endeavour's son. There is a chance his brother is here._

Naruto understood the reason these people wanted her. If they somehow found out about the Kyuubi then they would try to make her use it against the heroes. They might even trade her with the Akatsuki if they made contact. Give the Akatsuki the Kyuubi jinchuuriki and in exchange, they helped them in their pursuit of defeating All Might.

' _Because of her Quirk…'_

Naruto gritted her teeth and wished she could dig her fingers against her arm. The two bastards presumed her Quirk was cloning but what if their boss figure out the truth? Her father died to seal the Kyuubi inside of her. There was no way she would allow them to take it away from her. It was her duty to protect the Kyuubi just as it had been her mother and her great-great aunt's duty.

 _I will fight tooth and nail before I allow them to take him away._

"Stop." Kiba held his hand up, black eyes focused on the scenery in front of them. He scrunched his eyebrows together, not looking one bit bother when Izuku clashed into him. Naruto stumbled, blue eyes widened when Shouto grabbed hold of her arm, steadying her. Mismatch eyes flashed with concern and another emotion Naruto hoped she was not imagining to. "I smell blood, three other scents and…Hinata."

Naruto grimaced as Kiba burst through the underbrush, shoving aside the branches. _What is happening? Who is with her? How did they get injured?_ They raced forward, bursting through the underbrush and shoving aside the branches. Hinata's flushed cheeks whenever she teased her about Kiba flashed through her eyes. The encouragement in the Chunin Exams, the lunches in Ichiraku Ramen and the snow fights…all of those things flashed behind her eyes.

Naruto dove through the thicket of thorns, ignoring the slashes across her thighs and hands. The trees gave way to another trail, the same one that should loop back to camp. Naurto shoved aside a branch as Kiba skidded to a stop beside her. "Hinata!"

Blue eyes widened. "Ocahko-chan, Tsuyu-chan!"

"Naru-chan!" Tsuyu's voice, flooding with relief and sudden fear pierced the clearing. "Shoki-chan, everyone!"

Naruto's eyes snapped to where their classmate was strung up against the tree, pinned in place by her hair with a jagged knife. Blue eyes glanced to Hinata who was poised to take them down. Her eyes darted to where Ochako had another figure pinned down, the slender body suddenly lunging upwards and tossing her off, blood splattering the floor as a blond haired girl leapt back, a school uniform matted with a bit of dirty and blood.

Golden eyes gazed back at them, her lips curled down into a pout.

 _I can feel her blood lust._

"Hinata, are you fine?" Kiba demanded.

Hinata nodded. "I just finished from dealing with the person who had the poisonous Kekkai Genkai. I was tracking Naru-chan down—Itsuka-san told me that these people were targeting Naru-chan."

Pale milky eyes fixed on Naruto, concern and relief flashed through them. Naruto rubbed the back of her neck as her friend raised her eyebrow at her. _What did you do for someone to target you?_ The whiskered girl could only shrug weakly at her friend, offering an apologetic smile to her. Hinata slumped her shoulders, lips curled into a smile and a laugh came out of her lips.

"There are more people now and I don't want to be killed," her fellow blonde muttered, heavy equipment was strapped to her back. "So this is bye-bye…"

The villain turned on her heel, only for her to turn slightly at their direction. Naruto channelled her chakra into her hand, the energy swirling and twisting to form the Rasengan. Golden eyes lingered on the bruised up faces of Kiba and Izuku. Pale cheeks flushed a dark red and those golden eyes looked longingly at the two boys and then she was gone.

"We can't let her get away!" Ochako shouted, rising to her feet.

"It's dangerous!" Tsuyu quickly pushed her back down. "We don't know her Quirk, remember?"

Naruto frowned and twisted her head to look at Kiba. The feral boy had his eyebrows stitched together, lips curled into a frown and nose twitching as if he sensed something was wrong. Black eyes widened and he twisted his head to look behind her.

Naruto turned her head and blue eyes widened at the sight of a pair of gloved hands that stopped just an inch from her face.

Blue eyes flashed with fury and Naruto dropped Tsuraba. Twisting her whole body around, Naruto swung her leg at the villain. The villain froze for just a second before pressing one palm against her incoming leg. He snapped his gloved fingers at her. A flash of green light enveloped her, forcing her downwards till her body was pressed against some strange green thing.

Naruto's eyes grew large as she took in her surroundings.

It wasn't some green thing.

She was stuck in some kind of marble.

 _How the hell am I going to get out of this?_

* * *

"You son of a bitch! Give Naruto back!"

"You took Kacchan and Tokoyami! What did you do to them?"

Hinata clenched her hands into a tight ball of fist as Kiba channelled chakra into his body. Taking a deep breath, she pulled him back. Black eyes flashed with confusion and Hinata shook her head. If anything happened to Kiba then Naruto would just blame herself. The man just touched Naruto's legs, snapped his fingers and placed her into the green marble.

"I'm sorry but I can't give you back your friends." The villain tossed three marbles up and down. "The boy you mentioned has talents better suited to our cause. The other one showed such destructive power, I figured why not take him? And the girl? Her Quirk is so powerful that if we convince her, she can defeat even All Might."

Glacier shot towards the man and Hinata twisted her head to stare at the mismatch haired boy, whose eyes flashed with so much fury. _So much anger._ The villain jumped over the glacier, fingers fiddling with the three marbles. Hinata activated her Byakugan. The one on the far corner was Naruto, the middle was the boy with a crow's head and the closest one was the blond-haired boy.

There was no way Hinata could attack him with him being aware.

Out of everyone she had seen, this guy had the most dangerous Kekkai Genkai.

"Give them back?" The man chuckled. "What a peculiar request. They are people, not objects that people can own. They own themselves, you filthy egotist!"

Hinata felt her temper rise at those words and she felt a lump being formed against her throat. In the corner of her eye, she could see Kiba preparing to attack the man. _You can't get capture too._ Hinata took in a shaky breath and pressed her chakra channelled fingers on the pressure point that would freeze him. If Kiba did anything reckless and they failed then Naruto would blame herself.

Naruto can't blame herself.

Ice rushed upwards again, racing in jagged slabs. The mini glacier shot uupwards and the villain smashed his cane into the side, disappearing for a second behind a heavy piece of ice and reappearing as he slipped a hand into his pocket, steadying his hat with the other.

"We merely want to show them that the path they're on now with its fanatical values is not the only path they can take!" He called down to them.

Hinata gritted her teeth. "If you think Naruto will listen to you then you have no clue of what kind of person she is!"

"She will beat the shit out of you." The mismatch boy narrowed his eyes. "By going out of your way to talk to us means that you are underestimating us."

"I was originally an entertainer, you know," he said. The man played with the marbles between his fingertips. "It's a bad habit of mine. Taking Tokoyami was just an improv on my part. As I mentioned, he has quite the destructive power…"

Hinata tuned the man out and focused her eyes on the boy beside her. She knew very little of these people Kekkai Genkai but this boy seemed to fight long distance. Chewing on her bottom lip, Hinata tugged his sleeve and drew his attention on her. Mismatch eyes flashed with anxiety and concern before fading into eyes filled with blank emotions.

"They're in those marbles," Hinata whispered as the man continued to drone on and on. "Neither Kiba and I can fight him since our abilities requires contact but you can attack him with your ice Kekkai Genkai. Naruto is on the far end, the other two are in the middle…"

His eyes flashed with understanding and he attempted once again to shoot glaciers at the man. The man paused midway and jumped away from the glaciers, his hands shoving the marbles into his pockets. He clicked his tongue, mask-covered face focused on Hinata.

"You have someone that is capable of seeing where they are," his eyes focused on her. "I wasn't made aware of you or your companions Quirks. Perhaps I should have taken you too."

Kiba's eyes shone with fury at those words. Hinata didn't need to see his face to know the boy was furious with her for pressing the pressure point, not when it was clear her boyfriend wanted to smash his fist against this man's face for making that comment. Hinata wanted to slam her chakra filled hands against the man's chest and watch him choke in his own blood for taking her best friend away.

"Oh, what a shame." Hinata gritted her teeth as the man pressed the sides of his mask. "Vanguard Action Squard! Target one and two successfully collected. It was just a short while, but with this, our show has come to a close! As arranged, head to the retrieval point in the next five minutes!"

' _Hinata-chan, who should I write? I don't have any parents that I can write down. I would write down your name but I know you are going to write Kiba.'_

Blue eyes twinkled with joy.

' _Hinata-chan, I decided! I am going to become Hokage!"_

Blank blue eyes flashed before her eyes. The hospital bed that held only a single flower that Hinata brought. The lack of smile on Naruto's face when she visited her, the lack of response from her. All those things came to her mind as she charged towards the villain that threatened to take away her dearest and closest friend.

' _You know I have another dream but don't tell anyone about it, Hinata-chan. Everyone will think my dream is silly but you won't find it silly, right?'_

The Ice boy tried to match her speed, desperation flashed through those eyes as he tried to catch up with her. The trees blurred around them, nothing but the sight of the man leaping this way and that, further and further out of view. Hinata channelled more chakra to her leg, blood and energy throbbed as the man leaped further and further away.

She wasted so much energy with her Byakugan that her speed had been affected.

Naruto's smile flashed through her eyes as she recalled how her friend flushed a light pink and rubbed the back of her neck. Hinata rubbed her eyes, pushing back the tears that threatened to consume her. _Naru-chan wouldn't focus on crying. She would be more focused on getting us back._ She sprinted even faster, only to slow down when she realized the increasing distance between them.

She needed to have Naruto's chakra storage to catch up with him because her chakra levels would not allow her to match the same speed as these bastards.

Hinata smashed her hand against the floor as the students stopped behind her. With her Byakugan eye, she saw that the brown-haired girl dragged both the boy Naruto carried and Kiba by the legs. Hinata shook her head and focused her attention on the villain, hands clenched into a tight ball of fist.

"Hinata-san…" The boy Izuku said. "We won't give up."

Hinata swirled her head and regarded the determined green eyes of Izuku. Bruises decorated his face, blood soaked his skin and his teeth grinded together. The Byukagan wasn't needed for her to know he was in both physical and emotional turmoil of what just happened. "We will catch up to them and we will get them back!"

"I wasted so much chakra using my Byakugan." Their eyes widened and Hinata pressed her fingers against her forehead. "If I didn't waste so much chakra then my speed will just be faster and I can catch up to him. Right now he is around a kilometre away from us and he is picking up speed."

"Uraraka can make us float." Izuku declared, eyes sharpening at the brown-haired companion.

He nodded his head furiously. "And Asui can throw us as far as she can with her tongue! Shoji can use his arms to correct our path and us. You can tell us in which direction he is, right? Naruto and Kiba claimed that you were the best person in that poisionous gas and I think it is because of your eyes right?"

"The Byakugan." Hinata nodded.

"I see!" A mask covered boy slammed his hand against his palm. "A human bullet right?"

"Hold on!" Tsuyu said. "Are you sure this is a good idea? We don't know if we should trust them or why they are here!"

"You can trust us." Hinata closed her eyes and willed her heart to stop cracking from the pain. _You're so strong, Hinata-chan._ She clenched her hands into a fist. "Naru-chan means the world to me and I would do anything to protect her and her happiness."

' _I want to have a family…is that silly? No one will ever like a girl like me.'_

* * *

It happened like a short movie if you asked Shouto.

There were trees. Smoke rose up in curling, heavy clouds around them. The sky glittered, clear and frighteningly bright from their vantage point on the mountain. The sea of stars rippled around them.

Blue eyes and flushed red cheeks flashed before his eyes and Shouto felt his temper rise as the wind ripped past his ears, howling. Were they going to be fast enough? He wanted to grip something as his brain swirled with memories of his interactions with Naruto. Beside him, he could see the lone blue-haired girl stared in determination of their incoming battle.

'… _Thank you Shouto!'_

 _I can't let them take away Naruto. I need to save her just like she saved me. They can't take her._ Shouto focused his eyes on the villain. He saw the sky, saw the villain's back approaching and Shouto knew in his hands were his friends. In his hands was Naruto. Naruto who had been so impulsive to attack him. They needed to win. Needed to win because they couldn't take them.

It shouldn't end like this.

Shouto made sure to put the sole of his feet against the bastard's back the moment his weight returned.

The villain shouted.

Their weight returned. Gravity activated.

They fell.

Shouto's feet smashed into the villain's back. A refreshing crack reverberated throughout his body, coming straight from his. Death wouldn't come but it must have been painful for the bastard. _Where is Naruto?_ He flickered his eyes to the blue-haired girl whose veins protruded out of her forehead. She glanced at him, eyes flashed with determination as she locked her eyes on the culprit.

"Give _them_ back to us!" Midoriya roared.

A cloud of dust rushed out and fanned, dispersing. Shoji staggered, steadying all of them for a brief second. Shouto exhaled, focusing his attention on the villains across them. Naruto's friend grabbed hold of the man's throat, eyes flashed with so much fury.

"Hey, hey, I know these kids!" Twice shouted. "Who are they?"

The blond-haired girl from earlier curled up into a breathless smile.

"Villains!"

Turquoise eyes met his mismatch eyes and Shouto felt a slight sense of déjà vu.

"Move, mister!' Dabi said smoothly.

"You got it." The masked villain groaned.

A resounding _pop_ echoed in the ar. The weight beneath them disappeared with one massive, gaping crater left in its wake. Shouto stumbled and the clearing before them lip up in a blaze of strikingly beautiful blue. Heat rushed past and they all jumped away from each other. He twisted his head to look at the source of flames and his head throbbed.

Memories flashed through his eye but he could not make sense of them.

"I see faces from Shigaraki's kill list! But there is a face that is not in any of the lists!" Twice appeared high up in the air, a sharp shlick from where he tugged measuring tapes free from his wrists. Todoroki stiffened. "That blind-looking girl isn't in the list."

Shouto stomped his foot into the ground. A mountain of ice raced upwards, knocking Twice backwards. "That's hot!"

He looked away and searched for the villain who had his friend. His eyes scanned the area as Naruto's friend fought the blond girl who seemed to be very intent on fighting her. _Where is the bastard?_ Mismatch eyes grew large when he caught sight of the villain. He pressed his legs against the ground, shooting glaciers at the man. Only for the man to disappear.

 _Need to get them. Need to get Naruto._

He swore under his breath as the tape measure cut his skin. Pressing his foot again, he directed the ice towards the villain. _Bastard isn't letting me find her._ He took a step to the side when the villain swirled his weapon at him while the villain jumped away from his glaciers, legs never touching them. _Try to make a weapon_. Jiraiya asked him if he could make one with his quirk but Shouto never really thought about it.

 _No time._

"Guys!" Shoji shouted. Shouto's eyes snapped to the side. "We're running away!"

Hinata twisted her head, pale milky eyes flashed with confusion. "He still have them! They are inside his mouth!"

Their eyes widened and they jerked their head at the villain who just nodded his head. "It was a stretch to think that your Quirk wouldn't tell the difference from those marbles."

"My Byakugan can see everything." The blue-haired girl declared, milky eyes flashed with determination. She charged towards the villain but only to slow down as blue flames shot towards her, creating a wall between the villain and Hinata. The girl directed her furious eyes to the black-haired villain, who stared back at her with boredom.

"Is that a headless Nomu!"

The battle paused as everyone swirled their head to look at the headless creature approaching them. _Are those bugs?_ Bugs seemed to be eating through the Nomu, its flesh being torn apart and thrown all over the area. Shouto took a step back as everyone processed what seemed to be happening with the creature.

"I came as soon as I dealt with this creature." A voice called out, stepping from the shadow. _Sunglasses in the middle of the night?_ The boy looked no older then they were but he defeated the creature like it was no problem. "I heard from Naruto's classmates that these people are targeting her and that is a problem for us."

"Shino-san."

"Where is she?"

"He has them _inside_ his mouth!" Hinata declared as she tightened her grip on the blonde. The boy Shino nodded, charging straight towards the villains but only to stopped when a cloud of horrifying black mist gathered up, rising high into the air and curviving between them. Shouto swore under his breath, his eyes grew wide at what just happened.

"The wrap!" Izuku shouted. "Shino-san, don't go inside! He will take you to another location!"

Gaping portals opened up along the clearing before each of the villains. Hinata let go of the villain, eyes growing wide at the sight of them. Shouto narrowed his eyes and focused his attention on the masked man that had Naruto and the others. If he just directed his ice at him, would it be enough for him to spit out them? Or would it make him swallow instead?

He charged towards them.

"It's a habit, one of the basics of magic." He explained, lifting up the corners of his mask and smiling as dark eyes peered mischievously back. "The thing that your friend took was just your ice but it is a pity that she saw through my trick."

His lips parted, three round marbles resting softly on his tongue.

Shouto gritted his teeth and charged after him, mismatch eyes determined to grab his friends and Naurto. Only to stop when he saw twinkling all around the edges. Vibrant, a dazzling ray of light shooting outwards in one quick, heavy beam. It ripped the man's mask, causing him to spit out all of the marbles from his mouth. Shouto leaped without thinking, hands grabbing for the first marble that he saw.

Hinata, Shino and Izuku followed suit.

His fingers barely brushed the marble before the scarred villain grabbed hold of the marble. Turquoise eyes met his own, lips curled up at the corner and tugging at the staples holding it all together.

"That's sad," Dabi said quietly, turning the single, glistening marble in his grip. "Todoroki Shouto."

 _How does he know my name?_ Shouto hit the floor as the man stuffed the marble inside his pocket. _And which one did he take? Naruto? Tokoyami? Bakugou?_ He rubbed his arm, stole a glance at Hinata and Shoji. Hinata let out a sigh of relief, clutching the marble like it was her lifeline while Shoji frowned.

"My show's been _ruined_."

 _Pop!_

Tokoyami's body flashed, bright and blazing into view. He crashed down into Shoji, the two of them slamming back into the ground. Naruto's body flashed and she too slammed into Hinata, who let out a sigh of relief. The blonde blinked her eyes, blue eyes flashed in a daze as she tried to process what just happened. Midoriya charged forward, racing with a crackling flash of full cowling. He tore through the gap of distance in seconds.

"Kacchan—" Midoriya roared, reaching with extended arms.

The last words spoken by Bakugou:

"Stay back Deku."

* * *

" _I acted impulsively and I couldn't help them save Bakugou.'_

' _I am so fucking useless.'_

Naruto cradled her legs against her chest, eyes focused on the ground as words were being spoken at her. Who was speaking to her? Hinata-chan? Shino? Or was it Shoji? She stared blankly as Aizawa-sensei and Ero-Sensei charged towards them, their eyes flashing with concern. Could she really call herself a hero? She failed to save Sasuke and she had been stuck in that marble, no way of getting out.

No matter how many times she punched and kicked, the walls wouldn't cave in.

"I don't know what the fuck is going through your head Naruto but you are wrong." Blue eyes slightly blinked and slowly Naruto turned her head to Shouto. Anger shone through those eyes and dimly she was aware of Aizawa-sensei comforting Izuku for what happened. "You're wrong."

"If I hadn't tried to kick…"

"Even if you hadn't tried to kick him, he would still have tried to touch you and then take you away." Naruto clenched her hands into a fist as mismatch eyes focused on her. "And you saved people today. Yaoyorozu and Awase are safe and without any injuries because you sent Shino-san. Midoriya has only one injury because of Inuzaka. You saved people even if you didn't think about it."

"But I failed to save Bakugou!"

"We failed to save him." Shouto corrected her, placing his hands on her face. He forced her to look into his eyes and Naruto felt her throat clogged up when she saw the raw emotions in his eyes. The relief in his eyes made her want to choke up because why was he happy to see her? She failed. "This is our failure—not yours. We manage to stop them in a way, they didn't get you."

"Shouto, it wouldn't be a…"

He shook his head. "It wouldn't be a big deal if they took you? It would be just as a big deal if the roles were switched. Your Uncle would rip everyone apart if he found out they took you. Your employer cares about you and will blame the school for not doing their job properly. Your friends came all this way from Konoha to take you back and Hinata tried her hardest to save you so how can you not mean anything? You mean the world to a lot of people."

She rubbed her eyes, opening her mouth to explain herself but only to close it when Shouto focused his eyes on her. The relief in his eyes made her want to question him. Why did he feel so much relief when he saw her? She relaxed her shoulders when Shouto wrapped his arms around her, pushing her against his shoulder as if telling her that it was fine to be weak now.

"I feel useless."

"I know." Shouto rubbed gentle circles around her back, his eyes lingered on her own. He hugged her slightly tighter. "But you are not useless and while everyone is upset about Bakugou, we are happy that you are here. I am just so relieved to know that you are here and you are fine. I am happy that you are here."

"Naru-chan…"

Naruto flushed pink and slowly pushed herself off Shouto, head twisting to look at Hinata. Her friend stood in front of them, milky eyes shone with so many emotions but the most prominent were happiness and joy at the sight of her. There was also another emotion in her eyes, an emotion that Naruto never expected her to show: understanding.

She knew what she needed to do.

"Hinata-chan, I am so sorry for…"

Blue eyes widened when Hinata wrapped her slender arms around her. "Sorry? You better be sorry, Naru-chan! I was worried sick about you. If you were going to leave Konoha then tell me or at least send me a damn letter. I thought you would do something reckless like…"

Her eyes softened.

"I was being self-centred Hinata-chan," Naruto whispered. "I…I really thought no one would give a shit if I left the village since the civilian council were pressuring the Old Hag to exile me. Sakura-chan was upset and she said I was useless and Sasuke's words really broke me. I wasn't myself."

"I know you weren't yourself." Hinata sniffed. "The Naru-chan I know would have been pleading with me to take her away from the hospital or bring ramen. When you didn't answer me in the hospital and those blank eyes…I thought you were going to kill yourself."

Naruto felt her eyes welled up with tears. "I was close to doing that but I stopped myself and I asked Ero-Sennin to take me away from here because it would be admitting defeat. I know I should have told you but you would have come with me and your relationship with your Dad was just getting better. You also had Hanabi and well I didn't want to tear you away from Kiba."

"Even when you were in your worst state, you still thought of my happiness." Naruto laughed and Hinata shook her head. "And you should have let me decide what I wanted."

Naruto slumped her shoulders and her friend laughed, hands wrapped into an even tighter hug. Blue eyes focused on Shouto and her friend's eyes lingered on her lips, a tiny smile tugged on his lips. _He was happy for me._ Naruto's smile even larger and she hoped her eyes would convey how grateful she was for Shouto to bringing her out of that low state.

"I don't feel guilty for that," Naruto grinned. "You sly girl, don't even try and tell me about your relationship with Kiba. Who confess first? You or the Mutt?"

Hinata flushed pink and poked her fingers together. "Kiba-kun."

"Does he make you happy?" Naruto focused her eyes on Shouto, eyes lingering on the lingering frost that covered his cheek. She tore her eyes away and stared at her friend. The usual pale cheeks of her friend grew a light shade of pink at her words. "Then I am happy for you and I hope you name godmother of your three kids."

"Naru-chan!"

"Kidding!" Naruto grinned. "Four kids."

Hinata flushed even a darker red, poked her fingers together and stole a glance at Kiba. The boy grinned at them, eyebrows scrunched together before he barked out laughing. Of course he probably figured out what they were joking about. Naruto shook her head and stared at Shouto.

"I don't want to go back to Konoha, Hinata-chan." Naruto focused her eyes on her friend. "Not now when my classmate was taken away from me and definitely not when I finally found happiness. My mother's family lives here and they love me unconditionally. I got three cousins and I think…"

Pale milky eyes focused on Shouto. "I am not going to force you to come back Naru-chan and Kiba-kun might have said those words but he also wants you to be happy. Shino-kun too. What Todoroki-kun did just now was something none of us was able to accomplish when Sasuke-kun left Konoha. They gave you a lot of support and they care about you…it will be terrible to tear you away from them."

"Hinata-chan."

"You chose to leave me behind because you thought of my happiness even when you weren't in the right state right?" Naruto nodded and her friend smiled softly. "Then I want you to know that I want you to be happy because out of everyone I know…you deserve to be happy. You deserve to have your dreams come true."

"I am not going to become Hokage anymore." Naruto chewed on her bottom lip. "I am going to become a hero. The hero that protects the people of the world and that includes everyone in the Elemental Countries since they are a part of Earth. I am going to be the hero that the orphan in me never had, the hero that you never got when it came to your father and the hero Sasuke never had."

Hinata smiled.

"You will make a wonderful hero, Naru-chan."

* * *

A/N: Please review and tell me what you think.


	46. Chapter 46

**A/N: I want to thank everyone that added this story to their favourite and follows.**

* * *

Naruto always hated hospital.

As a little girl, just seeing a medic nin would bring her anxiety. Now the hospital with its white walls and the doctors with white coats reminded her of the days after she failed to bring Sasuke back. Even now she recalled those icy cold eyes whenever the nurse saw her, their eyes telling her that she should never have been the one to come back home.

Letting out a sigh, Naruto pressed her fingers against her head and stared at her depressed classmate. _It is good thing Hinata-chan and the others agree not to be here when I tell everyone the truth._ She flickered her eyes to the clock on the wall and then to her classmate, her lips curled into a frown. _Was I this bad? Or was I even worse?_ She barely remembered the days in the hospital but Hinata reminded her it had been just as bad, maybe even worse.

"Naruto…you're here." Naruto looked away from the clock and stared at those sorrowful eyes. The boy tried to sit up, struggling to move himself up and the blonde shook her head. She flashed him a tiny smile and wrapped her hands around his good shoulder. She pushed him up before fluffing his pillow. "Where is Hinata-san? And…"

"Hinata and Kiba are probably exploring the city and Shino is probably in the forest looking for new bugs to collect."

Green eyebrows furrowed at her words, looking almost like he didn't believe her. Naruto chewed on her bottom lip, uncertain on how to express how sorry she was for not being of more help. Shouto was right but a part of her would always blame herself for being so dizzy. If she had regained her surroundings earlier then she could have yanked Bakugou out of that man's grip.

The hospital door slid open.

"Morning." The two tees twisted around to see a slightly nervous Kaminari standing behind the door. He slid the door fully open before strolling towards them, hands tucked in his pocket and a guilty look in his face. Soon followed the other students, all of whom had a guilty expression.

"Did you guys watch the television? U.A is all over the news and it looks bad."

"We all bought you a melon!" Mineta declared, waving the melon over the top of his head.

"Everyone in class A came," Izuku whispered, eyes focused on the melon in Mineta's hand.

Iida grimaced. "Most of us came: Jirou and Hagakure are still unconscious from the gas."

"That makes us 18 people." Ochako whispered. She rubbed the back of her neck, avoiding their classmate's green eyes. Several of the students grimaced at the reminder. Naruto closed her eyes, gritted her teeth and clenched her hands into a tight ball of fist.

"Because Bakugou is not here." Shouto said flatly, lips pressed into a thin line. Naruto twisted her head and stared at him as Mina scolded him for reminding Izuku about what happened. There might be a veil behind his eyes but she could definitely sense the guilt behind his eyes.

Izuku stared blankly at them. "All Might used to say that he can't save the people he can't reach." Green eyes flashed with so much frustration. "It's exactly like what Aizawa-sensei said to me. You will just be decked and turn into a useless doll after saving one person."

Naruto felt her throat clogged up as Izuku released a river of tears. What does she do? Hugging him wouldn't make him feel better. The words that everything would be okay meant shit. She knew it from her own experience about this. Why could she comfort strangers without a problem? But she was terrible when it came to something like this?

"My hands could have reached him!" Izuku sobbed. "My body…wouldn't move…"

 _Slap_.

"Naruto!"

Everyone blinked their eyes and gawked at Naruto who stared at the boy with understanding and anger. The girl dropped her hand to her sides, blue eyes blazed with both understanding as well as anger. Shouto grabbed Kirishima's arm, mismatch eyes warning the boy from stopping the whiskered girl from talking.

"I am sorry for the slap but I don't want you to end up like me." Her classmates raised their eyebrows and Naruto swallowed down the lump that had formed inside her throat. "All of you have been wondering why Hinata-chan, Kiba and Shino was here right? It is because three years ago, I fucking tried to save my best friend from a pedophile and I failed. He was right there and my own words couldn't even move him, couldn't make him forget about his desire for revenge."

Green eyes widened at her words while everyone stared at her with large eyes. Naruto twisted to open her bag pack, hands searching for the reminder of her mission. She took in a deep breath and pulled out two headbands with the insignia. Naruto handed the scratched headband to Izuku before clutching her own headband tightly.

Loosening her grip on the headband, Naruto pulled out the picture of Team Seven. She handed the photograph to Kirishima, who knitted his eyebrows together.

"Do you know what is the most respected job in Konoha? It isn't being a Pro Hero." Naruto traced the insignia around her headband, lips curled into a bitter smile as she recalled her childhood. "It is being a Shinobi. Our village was filled with them and we were told that being a Shinobi was a respected job that would bring you a lot of money. So as soon as I turned six, I begged the Third to let me join the Academy to become a Kunoichi."

"How old must you be to graduate?" Momo questioned, onyx eyes lingering on the photo of her team.

"It depends on how smart you are and how lucky you are when it comes to the graduation exam." Naruto wrinkled her nose. "I always had bad luck since those bastards always asked me to do the clone jutsu, which is still till this day my worst jutsu. I failed the Graudation Exam three times and on my fourth time…I passed."

"Naru-chan, how old were you?" Mina asked.

"Twelve." Several eyes widened at her words with the exception of Tsuyu. Her classmate stared at her, black eyes shining with compassion and sadness. Naruto shook her head and smiled. "Most of us were fucking naïve when it came to the job. I thought that if I became a Kunoichi then people might start respecting me but that never happened. They still hated me for something out of my control."

"What do you mean?"

 _You could stop here and they wouldn't judge you. Are you willing to throw all that hard work away? All because of the Kyuubi._ The voice lured her, tempted her into keeping her past a secret from them. But the presence of Team Eight meant Konoha would never leave her be. She chewed on her bottom lip, opening her mouth to tell them to forget about it but Shouto's eyes stopped her.

 _Take a chance._ Those were the words his eyes were telling her. Naruto took in a deep breath, relaxed her grip on her shirt and stared at the encouraging eyes of her classmates. They weren't scared of her even though she unleashed a portion of the Kyuubi's energy in USJ. They still visited her in the hospital, brought her presents and thanked her for what happened.

There was a chance they could accept her and the Kyuubi.

"Fifteen years ago on my birthday, a monster was unleashed and wrecked chaos in the village," Naruto kept her eyes focused on Shouto, trying to draw strength from his silent encouragement. "I think maybe half of the village was destroyed because of him and there were a lot of deaths that came from it…including my parents. The thing that no one knew about the attack was that in a way it was my fault."

"But you were just born, how could it be your fault?" Momo questioned as her classmates hurdled around her. All of them stared at her with concern and Naruto wondered if most of them would still look at her in that way when she told the truth. "It wasn't like you asked for it to be attacked."

"The Kyuubi was sealed inside my mother and there is only one thing that weakens a Bjuu seal." Momo and Iida's eyes grew larger at her words while a few of her classmates knitted their eyebrows in confusion. "Childbirth. My Mum took the biggest risk in the world by bringing me to this world. Somewhere along the way they weren't able to control the seal and the Kyuubi was let loose."

"How did they stop him?" Ochako asked, sweat building up on her forehead.

"My Dad was the leader of Konoha," Naruto whispered softly. "And he had to make a choice: protect the village and sacrifice any chance of a normal life for his daughter or let the village burned in chaos and let his baby girl live a normal happy life. He chose the former and sealed the Kyuubi inside of me—he scarificed his life to seal him inside of me."

She felt tears leaking out of her eyes as memories of her lonely childhood flashed before her eyes. "As Uncle Kenji like to say, my Dad was the biggest fool in the world. He wanted me to be seen as a hero by Konoha because if it wasn't for me then the village would have been in ruins but…"

"They treated you like shit." Shouto finally said, drawing everyone's attention to her.

She nodded. "They used to call me names like monster, demon child and at one point: Freak. Until I met the Third Hokage, I never knew my name. He called me Naruto, told me that my name was Uzumaki Naruto and I am a child of Konoha." She choked. "When everyone treated me like shit, the Hokage treated me like I was a normal human being. He gave me money to survive, found me a home to stay when the Matron kicked me out of the orphanage and helped enrolled me in the Academy."

Naruto blinked her eyes when Tsuyu came towards her and wrapped her arms around her. She closed her eyes, allowing herself to show everyone her tears. It seemed like she was doing that a lot these days. Three years ago she would never cry about her predictament. People would never care about her feelings but her classmates did care.

"I spent six years learning how to become a Kunoichi," Naruto admitted. "Six years training to become a killer. In my first year, I tried to hard to get good grades but no one was happy with it. The teachers would just give me harder papers to do and most of the girls thought I didn't deserve it. If anyone deserve it then it should be Sasuke."

' _How can someone like you beat Sasuke-kun?'_

' _You must have cheated off Sasuke-kun!'_

"I tried so hard to make everyone love me," She closed her eyes and allowed herself to be thrown into the sea of memories. "I acted like an absolute idiot and I played pranks to make everyone laugh. I wanted people to notice me and have someone care for me but they couldn't look past my whisker marks. All they saw was the Kyuubi's brat and instead of forgiving me for my one small lapse in judgement…they wanted to exile me."

"What happened?" Mina asked.

"Sasuke happened." Her hands wobbled and Naruto steeled her hands before yanking her shirt slightly down for everyone to see the scar Sasuke inflicted on her. The girls' eyes widened while the boys looked at her in confusion, including Mineta. "I was lucky in a sense. I might have missed my parents and they might have died to protect me but I never knew them. Sasuke wasn't like that and his childhood is just as bad."

"What do you mean?" Kaminari asked, forehead sweating at her words.

"The Bastard was born into a prestigious clan and was the second child of the Uchiha Clan Head." Naurto stared down at her headband, swallowing down the bile that threatened to come out. _Don't think about what Itachi told you._ Focus on the present and what Sasuke knew. "He had an older brother called Itachi and Sasuke worshipped the ground that he walked on."

She focused her eyes on Shouto and wondered his own past with his siblings. Shouto told her that he was never close to his siblings but there must have been a time when he was close to them. Then again if his father was anything like Hiashi then it was possible for him to have very little contact with his siblings.

"Itachi was brilliant in terms of being a Shinobi." Naruto felt her eyebrows twitched as she recalled Itachi's admission. _The Uchiha's brothers are fools._ She shook her head. "At the age of eight, he graduated from the Academy and by the time he was fourteen, he was in the ANBU. You can think of the ANBU as a secret service of the Hokage."

"Naru-chan, where are you trying to go with this?" Momo asked.

"I think it would be eight years ago now." Naruto answered softly. "Eight years ago, Sasuke was running back home after training and well instead of being greeted by the members of his clan with smiles on their faces." She felt her stomach rolled over as the nameless faces of the Uchiha Clan flooded into her mind. "He was greeted by the sight of Itachi murdering his whole clan."

Onyx eyes widened and Momo sweated slightly. "Naru-chan, didn't you meet him in the Mall? How could you have gone with him? If he is a murderer…"

"He was pleading with me to bring Sasuke back to Konoha." Their eyes widened at her words. "What Sasuke doesn't know is that his brother was ordered by the Village Elders to kill the whole clan. Itachi was given two options: kill the whole clan and spare his brother or to die with them. The bastards knew how much Itachi loves Sasuke and knew which option he would go for."

"How old was he?" Ochako choked out.

"Fourteen."

Everyone paled and their eyes grew round with sympathy. Naruto closed her eyes as she tried to imagine the turmoil Itachi must have had. In all her memories of watching Sasuke, she could still recall the gentleness and love in Itachi's eyes. A part of her would and will always envy her best friend for having a big brother who would do anything to make sure he lived.

Itachi must have had to harden his heart to kill his parents.

"Sasuke doesn't know about this, does he?" Shouto questioned.

Naruto shook her head. "If he knew about it then maybe Sasuke would have taken a different path then the one he chose to take. Three years ago in our Chunin Exams, Orochimaru attack us and gave Sasuke a cursed seal. I don't know what he did but he gave him an offer…an offer that I should have known was too tempting for him."

"What was the offer?" Kirishima asked.

"He offered him power." Their eyes widened and Naruto slammed her hand against the table, smiling apologetically to Izuku when the table cracked in half. "Go to him and he would make him stronger than Itachi and give him the capability to kill him. Itachi, the bastard, thought that to make Sasuke stronger was to tell him to walk the path of vengeance instead of letting him know the truth. Sasuke was always so damn impatient and he never liked it when someone was stronger than him…I guess in a way he was similar to Bakugou."

"Don't compare Bakugou with him!" Kirishima snapped.

"I'm not." Naruto shook her head. "Bakugou and Sasuke are two different people. Sasuke only became an even bigger asshole after losing his parents, Bakugou has always been an ass."

The students laughed at her words and Naruto focused her eyes on Izuku, who looked at her with newfound emotions. Naruto took the photo from Kirishima's hands, blue eyes locked on the tiny scowl on Sasuke's face. Sakura's bright smile burned in the photo and her own scrowl reflected back at her. _I should have tried to be happy and not insult him._ She sighed.

They had always been idiots in their own ways.

"Sakura-chan was the one that found out that Sasuke was leaving the village." Naruto sighed. "She figured out before anyone else that the Bastard was planning to go to Orochimaru and she pleaded with him to stay…but once Sasuke has got an idea in his head, he sticks to it."

 _I should have known that he was never going to listen because we were similar in this sense._ A pair of large hands laid on her shoulders and Naruto twisted her head to see Shouto. Mismatch eyes shone with concern and Naruto smiled at him, hoping it would be enough to convey her feelings towards him. She was fine now. The girl from three months ago had nearly faded away and would soon be a lingering memory.

It would be a lingering memory.

"So the Hokage told Shikamaru to arrange a team to stop Sasuke from making the biggest mistake of his life," Naruto tore her eyes away from Shouto. "Shikamaru picked me because I am Sasuke's teammate and best friend. He chose Kiba because of his tracking skills. Choji was chosen since he was at the time one of the physically strongest kid out of all the Rookies. Neji was chosen for his eyes."

"So what happened?"

"We got separated since we were fighting members of Orochimaru's henchmen." Naruto rubbed her chin. "I ended up being the one to fight Sasuke. I tried reasoning with him, telling him that he had a family in Konoha and that his new family was Team Seven. I tried to reason with him but he kept reminding me that I wouldn't understand his pain because I never had a family."

"Naru-chan…"

"He was right because my words meant little when I never experienced the bonds he lost." She forced herself to smile at them. "And so if words wouldn't work, why don't I fight him? I told him that I would break every bone in his body if it meant bringing him back home. That didn't happen. I lost and I would always have a reminder on my chest."

"Is he the reason you run away?" Tsuyu asked.

"The villagers blamed me for not bringing him back home." Naruto confirmed. "And just like Izuku, I kept blaming myself for not saving him from his own stupidity. I kept replaying the battle in mind and each time I did, a little part of me would crack. It probably didn't help that no one visited me in the hospital…well Hinata-chan did but I wasn't in my best state of mind to register she was there."

"Oh Naru-chan…" Ochako whispered.

"I was going crazy from the loneliness and from the words spoken by the villagers." She shook her head. "The fact they wanted to exile me was just the last straw for me. I loved Konoha with all my heart even when they treated me like shit and a tiny part of me still love the village…because my Mum and Dad scarificed their lives to save them. My point is: I understand how you feel but don't blame yourself. The Pro Heroes are going to save him and Bakugou will fight tooth and nail to get out of there."

Shouto flickered his eyes at her and Naruto avoided his knowing eyes.

' _You want to go and save Bakugou.'_

The blonde only just pressed her lips into a thin line.

' _I will save him.'_

* * *

Hinata stirred her tea, milky eyes locked on her smiling friend as she greeted the customers. Beside her, Kiba could only gawk as Naruto flashed a smile at some of the boys who immediately handed the girl a large tip for her service. Shino just knitted his eyebrows, uncertain on how the girl was able to get a large tip. In Konoha, it had been a struggle for the girl to get someone to smile at her.

"Sorry for making you guys wait," Naruto removed her apron and slid into the seat beside Hinata. The whiskered girl folded her apron, placed her hands on top of her apron and smiled widely at them. "I got a favour to ask of you guys."

"What are you planning this time?" Kiba sipped his cola, black eyes flashed with both curiosity and weariness.

Naruto flickered her eyes around the scenery, her blue eyes burned with determination. "I am planning to rescue Bakugou and I need you to help me track him down."

"Those guys were no joke, Naruto." Kiba pointed out, his hands unconsciously rubbing Akamaru's fur. He flickered his eyes towards her, black eyes flashed with both excitement and weariness. Shino nodded and pushed his glasses upwards. "We will be risking our lives again to rescue him. We can't have a repeat from when we tried to rescue Sasuke."

"Sasuke wanted to run away from Konoha," Naruto fixed her eyes on Kiba. "But Bakugou will fight tooth and nail to escape from that place. He might complain about the fact we saved his ass but Bakugou isn't an idiot. He knows that the villains have nothing to offer him. His dream is to surpass All Might and becoming a Villain will never help him achieve his dreams."

"We don't know what their Kekkai Genkai are," Shino pointed out, startling the blonde. Hinata sighed as Naruto took the time to process the fact Shino was with them. Even in the Academy, Naruto never noticed the boy. "That monster I attack had no intelligence which was why I was able to kill it but the others…"

"I know but we can't let him stay kidnap because we have no clue the shit they are putting him through and it might take weeks for the Heroes to save him," Naruto declared. "The Pro Heroes don't know where to start in searching for Bakugou or so I heard my cousin talked over the phone."

Hinata regarded her friend, eyes searching for clues on the reason for her friend's determination. In the corner of her eye, a pair of mismatch hair and a red-haired boy seemed to be strolling towards them with determination in their eyes. She tapped Naruto on the shoulder and pointed at the two boys, who stood in front of their tables.

"Kirishima, Shouto…what the hell are you guys doing here?"

"Todoroki said that you plan to track Bakugou down," Kirishima declared. Her friend groaned and flickered her eyes to the customers, who seemed to have their eyes fixed on them. Hinata took a deep breath and slid further into the booth, Naruto followed suit and Todoroki slid in. Kiba did the same to allow the boy Kirishima in. "We want to help."

"Kirishima, this is dangerous." Naruto hissed. "If we bring the two of you then there is more risk for us to consider."

The boy clenched his hands into a fist. "I know but you know how it feels right? You said you couldn't save your friend but at least you tried to save him! I didn't even try to save Bakugou since your Godfather had to keep stopping me from going out there to try and rescue him! I wasn't able to do anything!"

"I am only taking them because I need someone to track him down," Naruto declared. "The Pro Heroes have no clue where he is and if I were to bring you with us then I can't attack them. You saw what they did to everyone right? Even with Hinata-chan and the others, I am not going to let them attack."

"Naruto, if you had the chance to save Sasuke again and someone told you no, would you listen?" Todoroki questioned her friend. Hinata tilted her head and focused her attention on Naruto and the boy. It came to her attention that Naruto seemed to care for him and actually took the time to listen to him. She also couldn't deny the feelings Naruto had for him.

"That's different." Naruto hissed. "Sasuke was not just my best friend, Shouto! I also made a promise to Sakura-chan to bring him back home. He was like my big brother and would you let your brother continue to make the same mistake? The bond I made with Sasuke was one forge from him sacrificing his life to save me and that is why I would go to great lengths to make sure he is happy. You guys haven't known Bakugou as long or made a bond that…"

"You used to challenge Sasuke to a fight." Kiba deadpanned. "How does that make your bond any different?"

"He scarificed his life to protect me…"

"Probably because he had the hots for you." Naruto bristled at the comment while Todoroki pressed his lips into a thin line. Kiba raised his arms up. "Look they consider him a member of their pack, would you really stop them from coming? If Shikamaru hadn't told you about the mission to bring Sasuke back and asked you to come, would you have listen to him?"

"Since when the hell did you get smart?" Naruto grumbled as the two boys looked at her with so much hope. Her friend pressed her fingers against the sides of her head and let out a sigh. "Okay, fine! You guys can come but the moment I think it is dangerous then you are out."

Hinata sighed.

 _Hopefully we won't make the same mistakes as Naru-chan and Kiba-kun made in the Sasuke's retrival mission._

* * *

 **A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter.**


	47. Chapter 47

**A/N: I want to thank everyone that added this story their favourites and follows.**

* * *

"We need to rescue Bakugou without getting into any fights."

The five teens shoot their heads upwards, eyes growing large into a thin line as Shouto placed the map of Japan on Kirishima's coffee table.

Naruto tilted her head and twirled her pencil around with her fingers, blue eyes focused on the detailed map of Japan. She knew exactly what went through Shouto's head but there was no way she could go in there without fighting. _They take our classmate and you want me not to pick a fight?_ She closed her eyes, trying to imagine the hell Bakugou must be going through.

"…you don't plan to do my suggestion." Shouto said flatly, poking her in the ribs.

Naruto grimaced and tapped her pencil against her head. "It isn't like I don't understand why you prefer us not getting into any fights but the chances of us getting in and getting out without them noticing is practically zero. Bakugou isn't the type of guy that is going to come with us quietly."

"He might just stay quiet if you are one of the people that is rescuing him," Kirishima said, his red eyes fixated on the map. Naruto frowned, eyebrows raised at the confidence her friend had of her ability to reason with their hot-headed classmate.

"Explosive Head only listens to me whenever I point out how much of an idiot he is being or if I threaten him." Naruto said flatly, slumping her back against the sofa. She twirled a strand of her blond hair against her fingers, eyes closed as their arguments throughout the three years passed through her mind. "He would rather stay kidnapped then be rescued by me."

"I don't know about that," Kirishima smiled. "Out of everyone in class, he seems to respect your opinion the most and he always has his eye on you."

Naruto pressed her lips into a thin line, running her hands through her hair as she tried to figure out where to go from this. _If anyone knows Bakugou better than Izuku then it is Kirishima._ Bakugou was an anti-social guy, never having actual time to make true friends, but somehow the red haired boy managed to worm his way into being friends with Bakugou.

' _You would be wasting your time working in a café.'_

She curled her lips into a smile and laughed. Her friends swirled their heads, eyebrows knitted together at her sudden laughter. _A ninja must see underneath the underneath._ Bakugou, in his own way, believed in her own talents and capabilities. Instead of acting like a jealous boy, he told her in his own ways that he found their teacher's beliefs to be true.

She thought he had been mocking her first dream.

' _Did anyone ever tell you that you are a bad liar?'_

 _I always thought he was only focused about himself._ Naruto glanced at the graduation photo of their middle school. The scowling face of Bakugou and the sulky glance at her direction spoke volumes to her of how long he had been observing her. Respect her? Maybe because she had been the first person not to bow down to his ego.

He hated and respected her for it.

"Pass me that piece of paper Hinata-chan," Naruto pointed to the blank piece of paper that laid beside the blue-haired girl. Hinata tilted her head, eyebrows scrunched together as she handed her the blank piece of paper. _Seals are capable of doing anything and can be your most powerful weapon if you are smart on how to use it._ Uncle Kenji's words echoed in her ear as her mind buzzed with several plans.

"What are you planning to do with a piece of paper?" Kiba asked. Black eyes grew wider at the sight of the order and complexity of the Kanji characters being written out. "Since when did you know how to do seals, Naruto? That shit is complicated as hell."

Naruto kept her eyes focused on her seal as her brain swirled with different ideas. "Uncle Kenji made it clear to me that a member and any descendent of the Uzumaki Clan must master the Art of Sealing. In his words: Sealing is an art that one should take pride in."

"It looks like a bunch of Kanji written in some strange order," Kirishima said, stealing a glance at the characters in her piece of paper. "Is it supposed to be hard?"

"It is like a writing a computer program as Uncle Kenji would like to explain to me," Naruto explained absent-mindedly, rubbing off the position of certain characters. "The problem with sealing is that you need to be patient and it requires a lot of problem solving skills but surprisingly enough, I can spend hours and days doing it."

"You seem to have a very good knowledge of it," Hinata leaned forward to have a better look of the seal. "Do you think you can figure out how to undo the seal on Neji-niisan's forehead?"

Naruto paused, putting down her pencil, and turned to look at the curious, hopeful eyes of her best friend. It crossed her mind once but Naruto barely recalled the seal on Neji's forehead. _I would need to see the seal and do some research on it. I would also need to talk to Uncle Kenji since he has a better knowledge of seals._ Right now her focus was to figure out how to create the perfect seal for her plan.

"Once we are done with getting Bakugou back then I will see what Uncle Kenji and I can do." Pale milky eyes lit up in joy at her words but Naruto could not bring herself to smile. She pressed her pencil against her forehead, eyes focused on the seal in front of her. Two days. She would need two days to confirm that the seal was perfect.

"Kirishima, you have been to Bakugou's house before, right?" Kirishima nodded and the blue-eyed girl flickered her eyes towards Kiba and Akamaru. "I need you to bring something of Bakugou so that Kiba can track him down."

"Can you still track him down even though he went through a portal?" Kirishima questioned.

Kiba nodded. "It will be difficult but it isn't impossible as long as we have his scent."

"I will send some of my bugs to track him down," Shino added.

 _Hopefully we will find him before they did anything bad to him._

They could not fail this time.

* * *

( _ **Two days later)**_

"Eisuke-niisan, I am worried about Naruto."

Eisuke looked away from the police reports, rubbed his tired eyes and turned to look at Kiko. The auburn-haired girl had her eyes fixed on the training room where the screams of Naruto echoed for the whole family to hear. Dimly he could almost hear the yells of several shadow clone as they popped out of existence.

"How long has she been in there, now?" Eisuke questioned, his eyebrows stitched together as he placed the police reports in the drawer. He dusted off his suit and took a sip of his coffee, lips pressed into a thin line. _This was probably a terrible time for Dad and Mum to go on a business trip._ If anyone could get through their cousin then it was his father.

"Five hours now," Kiko confirmed. "Do you think she will stop once you and the other heroes find him?"

Eisuke pressed his tongue against the mug's wall, his green eyes focused on their young cousin who seemed intent on staying inside the training room. The thing he came to realize about Naruto in the days of her internship was the fact Naruto felt frustrated when she couldn't do a job properly.

She must be blaming herself for what happened with that Bakugou boy.

"I don't know but that isn't the sound of someone moping about the fact her friend is gone." Eisuke informed her, putting down his coffee mug. He strolled towards the training room, Kiko not far behind him, and slid the door open.

Green eyes grew large as he took in the sight of the damage in the training room. The pristine white wall his mother took pride in were marked with burnt marks. Parts of the wooden floor were torn off, spread all over the place. _Need to repair the flooring before Mum comes back home._ Eisuke flickered his eyes to the seals scattered throughout the training room .All of the seals had a different character or order to the next.

In the middle of the chaos was Naruto and her shadow clone. Scratches and burnt marks decorated his cousin, steam seemed to be pouring out of her body and to Eisuke's slight envy, the burnt marks on Naruto were slowly fading away. Her clone swirled her head at them, eyes flashing apologetically before popping out of existence.

"What the hell are you doing, Naruto?" He roared, charging towards the tired girl. He wrapped his arms around her as the girl stumbled down, legs wobbling and a determined look on her face.

Naruto relaxed against his arms, a tired smile playing on her lips. "Experimenting with the seals and I am nearly there. I just need to sleep a little bit and just maybe, just maybe I can finally create this seal."

"Didn't Dad warn you not to experiment with seals when he isn't here?" Eisuke scolded. He turned to Kiko and gestured for her to bring the first-aid kit from the kitchen's cabinet. _One small mistake with a seal and you might either cause a whole country to explode or be sent to a whole different time period._ Those had been his father's words whenever Akane tried to experiment seals without his knowledge.

"I can't wait till Uncle Kenji come back," Naruto declared, smiling widely at him. Eisuke curled his lips, head shaking at her words and he focused his attention on the seal lying on the floor, which had been on the clone. He picked it up, eyebrows knitted together as he tried to decipher what his cousin planned to make.

Timer, chakra and _was that transfer?_ He chewed on his bottom lip and tried to figure out what the girl planned to do with these characters in that order. It was not a time portal that was for certain. The order was not complex enough to make one nor was there any indication blood had been used.

What would she gain from transferring her chakra? Eisuke stole a glance at his sleeping cousin who had a tiny smile playing on her lips. Was she using her clone to speed up the process? He shook his head and wrapped his arms around the girl's arms and legs and proceeded to take her to the living room. _One of these days she will overwork herself from doing too much seal experiments._

"Is she going to be okay?" Kiko asked as Eisuke placed the girl on the sofa. He curled his lips into a smile and went to the drawers, pulling out the spare blankets his mother had for when his father overworked from making those charms that some girls had.

"She just needs to take it easy," Eisuke explained, patting Naruto's hair. "She is damn lucky she has more chakra than she knows what to do because anyone else would have died from the amount of chakra overuse."

"She seems really upset about what happened."

"Can you blame her? The boy has been her classmate since middle school," Eisuke shook his head and stared at the television screen. Ever since the incident with her classmate, he refused to open the television and let her be reminded of what happened. Why make it worse? It was probably eating her inside already. "He was taken right in front of her. I don't think anyone would be alright with that knowledge."

"But would you push yourself to the level Naruto is aiming for?"

 _I wouldn't know until I have been in her situation._ He wanted to say no but Eisuke knew the situation would be different if his best friend, his sisters or Naruto were in this situation.

He just hoped Naruto wouldn't do anything rash.

* * *

"Todoroki-kun, what are you doing here?"

Hinata tilted her head as the mismatch boy stopped in front of the café Naruto worked in. The younger boy slowly twisted, eyes growing slightly confused at the sight of her being here. She was the only one in her team that didn't need to search for Bakugou, not until Kiba caught a whiff of Naruto classmate's scent.

"I have some time off and I wanted to check on Naruto," he answered flatly. Hinata hummed at the response, her eyes twinkled with mirth as the boy avoided her eyes. His usual pale cheeks flushed lightly and Hinata felt curious to know of the relationship between Naruto and him.

"Since we are both here to check on Naru-chan then we should drink some tea, shouldn't we? I think Naru-chan will join us as soon as she finishes her shift," Hinata said lightly, offering him a small smile.

He looked at her thoughtfully, mismatch eyes shone with both weariness and curiosity, before tilting slightly downwards at her. Hinata hummed, curled her lips into a frown and crooked her head as the two of them took the booth closest to the table Naruto was currently waitering.

 _Todoroki-kun is a very quiet person when he is not around Naru-chan._ Hinata looked at the menu and then back at Todoroki. The boy had the menu open but his eyes were nowhere near the words of the menu instead his eyes lingered on the forced smile playing on Naruto's lips. The knitted eyebrows spoke volumes of his concern around Naruto.

"She used to do those smiles a lot in Konoha," Hinata flipped the menu to the sweets on offer. Her lips trembled at the sight of the delicious cream caramel on offer. She looked up from the menu, focusing her eyes on the boy. "When she doesn't want anyone know she is feeling down or she is having a bad day, she would give those smiles."

"I know that isn't her real smile," Todoroki commented, his eyes fixed on their smiling friend. He paused and tilted his head at her. "Her real smile is warmer and it makes her look a hundred times prettier."

Hinata curled her lips upwards and stole a glance at Naruto. Her best friend blinked before offering her a tiny smile at her. Pale milky eyes turned blank when Naruto directed her eyes to Todoroki, her blue eyes brimming with so many emotions.

 _I don't think I have ever seen Naru-chan look at any boy in that way._ She clasped her hands together and regarded the boy in front of her. Todoroki was a good looking boy, more good looking than nearly all the males in Konoha. If her friend was a shallow girl, Hinata would have presumed it was for this reason she liked him.

Naruto wasn't the type of girl who focused on love.

"Do you ever tell Naru-chan that?" The boy tilted his head, paused for a moment and then proceeded to nod his head.

 _I bet Naru-chan had a heart attack when she heard those words._ Despite what most people believe when it came to Naruto, her best friend never had that much confidence about her looks. No matter how many times she tried to reassure her friend, complimented the blonde, her friend refused to believe she was prettier than all the other girls in the Academy.

"Would you like to order?"

Hinata flashed a smile at the waitress and quickly order the cream caramel and ice tea while Todoroki ordered some green tea. _Green tea._ The blue-haired girl felt her lips twitched upwards, remembering how Naruto used to say anybody who drank green tea was a boring old man.

Despite saying those words, her friend seemed to really like him.

"How did you and Naruto become friends?"

Hinata regarded the boy, her hands folded against her chest and head tilted to the side at his earnest question. The snowy days of Konoha flashed before her eyes, the taunting words of the bullies echoed in her ears and the scent of the bullies' blood as she defended her from the people who taunted her for her eyes.

"I used to be bullied because of my eyes," Hinata picked up her knife and twirled it. "A lot of the other kids didn't like my eyes because of how creepy it looks but not Naru-chan. One day when the boys tried to bully me, Naru-chan just charged in and beat them all in a pulp, declaring to everyone that she was Uzumaki Naruto and she was going to become the strongest Kunoichi in Konoha."

"And that is when you became friends."

Hinata smiled softly. "It was the happiest day of my life because before Naru-chan became my friend, I didn't have many friends growing up."

Todoroki nodded and sipped his tea, eyes now locked on the smiling face of her best friend. _It isn't obvious in public but I can really see his feelings when it comes to Naru-chan when the two of them are together._ The way he encouraged her friend, comforted her and even reminded her that things weren't really her fault—they spoke volumes to Hinata.

"It is so easy to love Naru-chan, don't you think? She makes it so easy." Hinata smiled at him, her fingers twirling her straw around her drink. The group of friends across them burst out laughing from one of the jokes Naruto was telling them. "But Naru-chan would never know if you love her if you never tell her."

"Love? Don't you think I am a bit young for this? I shouldn't know what that means," Shouto said and Hinata hummed, lips curled into a tiny smile as the boy jerked his head to Naruto. He furiously shook his head. _I guess he is like Naruto in this sense, blind to his own feelings but aware of other people's feelings._ She giggled when Naruto stole a glance at them, eyebrows knitted together at their confusion.

"Love can just sneak up on you and you don't need to know what it means…you just know from how you treat her compare to everyone else," Hinata said softly as Naruto directed them a smile. The whiskered girl gave them seven fingers, telling them she would be finished with her shift in the next seven minutes. "Can you imagine doing the same things to the other girls? To a sibling even? Or is it something just reserve for Naru-chan?"

Todoroki tilted his head and fixed his eyes on Naruto.

"I can't imagine it."

Hinata hummed when she saw the confused look on his face.

"Todoroki-kun, I am not going to pressure you to figure out your feelings when it comes to Naru-chan," Hinata slipped the money on the table and stood up, offering an apologetic smile to friend frowned but the Hyuga Heiress just pointed at the clock. "But Naru-chan deserves to know what you feel about her whether it is friendship or feelings of love and when you realize how you feel about her…make it clear to her because Naru-chan won't know _how you feel if you don't show it to her_."

 _The feelings Naruto has for Todoroki-kun is one greater than any feelings she had for any boy._ Hinata knew her friend would survive the heartbreak if the boy nipped it in the bug right now but it would be cruel for him to keep toying with her feelings.

Her friend deserved to be with someone that was willing to give her all the love she deserved and needed.

* * *

 **A/N: Please review and tell me what you think**


	48. Chapter 48

A/N: I want to thank everyone that added this story to their favourite and follows.

* * *

"You found out where Bakugou is?"

Naruto folded her arms against her chest at the Shino's news. Kirishima stared at the boy with hopeful eyes, lips curled into smile. Both Kirishima and Naruto knew how difficult it had been for the teens to track him down with the lack of scent in the area.

Shouto tilted his head and stared at the map. His bicoloured eyes followed the movement of Shino's bug as it buzzed around in a circle to pinpoint the exact location of their kidnapped classmate. His fingers wrapped tightly around the mug of tea Hinata had made for them.

Kiba picked up a pencil and drew a circle around the area the bug was flying over. "It seems like it is in Yokohama City in the Kamino district?"

"That is only a two hour train ride!" Kirishima glanced at Naruto. "So now that we know his whereabouts, what's the plan? We aren't going to fight them are we?"

 _It is too risky since we need to get Bakugou out quickly._ Naruto grabbed the pencil from the table and began to fiddle with it, twisting and turning it as her mind thought of a way to take her classmate without killing anyone or putting anyone in great risk. _The seal is perfect now to save him but I haven't checked how long it can hold._

"We sneak in at a time when everyone is asleep," Naruto flickered her eyes to the clock. "Hinata-chan will tell us the exact numbers and how many people are asleep. Kiba and Akamaru will wait outside and take Bakugou as soon as he is out. As for you two, I will need the pair of you to act as lookouts."

"Isn't it a bit too risky for you to go inside by yourself?" Kirishima questioned. Red eyes flashed with concern telling Naruto how much he didn't like the thought of her being by herself when she carried out the operation. Todoroki pressed his lips into a thin line while Kiba and Hinata stole a glance at each other.

Naruto smiled. "Thanks for worrying about me but I can do this."

 _I snuck in the Hokage Tower without any of the guards figuring it out and the only person who figure out my whereabouts was the Third._ Naruto tilted her head and scrunched her eyebrows. _I still have no idea how the old man figured out how I was in the tower._ She shook her head and her eyes lingered on the circle drawn around Bakugou's location.

"Do you know anything else about the location?"

Shino pressed his eyebrow and whispered to his bug. _How does the bug understand what he says?_ It was a question that had bothered her from the moment she met the boy. She chewed on her bottom lip as the insect drew out the letters for them. _Bar._ _Boy is in chains. No torture. They are trying to convince him to join them._ Naruto glanced at Team Eight.

"Is there a high chance he would join them?" Hinata questioned.

Kirishima furiously shook his head. "It would be the last thing he wants."

"His dream is to surpass All Might and being a villain is the last thing he wants." Naruto pushed her bottom lip forward, blue eyes lingered on their graduation photo. _I am going to surpass All Might and become the number one hero._ His words echoed in her ears, red blazing eyes filled with determination and cockiness flashed behind her eye. "Explosive Head kept yelling it out for everyone to hear."

"Sounds like another blonde I know," Kiba commented.

"Did Naruto used to scream too?" Kirishima turned to look at the blonde and Shouto flickered his eyes at her, mismatch eyes shining with curiosity. "I can't imagine it."

Hinata curled her lips into a smile and stole a glance at Naruto, silently asking for her permission. Naruto nodded. "It is hard to see now but Naru-chan used to do it a lot. She used to tell everyone that she was going to become Hokage. She wanted to become the strongest Kunoichi in Konoha and surpass all the Hokages."

"The Hokage is the leader of your village right?" Kirishima questioned. "And wait wasn't your Dad Hokage?"

Kiba frowned. "How would you know that? Naruto doesn't know her father and the only Hokage possible would be…"

He jerked his head at her.

"Ero-Sennin confirmed to me that my Dad was the Fourth Hokage." Her friends' eyes grew wide at the knowledge and Naruto pressed her lips into a thin line. She could understand their shock because the books made it seem like the Hokage never married or had kids. Yet she was proof that the Fourth Hokage had a child.

"If your Father was the Fourth then why would they keep it a secret?" Kiba questioned. "Your Dad was a hero for Konoha so why wouldn't they…"

"It make sense when you consider Naruto's appearance with the Fourth Hokage," Shino commented. He tilted his head, eyes searching her as if something else popped into his mind. "We have never seen a coloured photograph of the Hokage but when you see the monument and the photo in the Hokage's office…"

"It isn't hard to connect the dotes," Hinata finished.

 _I still don't know how I never connected the dotes earlier._ Naruto poked her tongue against her cheeks and shook her head. Her father's job was not important now. She respected him and yes she did want to become stronger than him but Bakugou came first. Their rescue mission would come first. The second thing was to figure out what to do with the others.

"We need to focus on rescuing Bakugou," Todoroki reminded them.

Naruto shot a grateful look to her friend and the boy's eyes focused on her face. Mismatch eyes lingered on her whisker marks before going to her lips. She tilted her head and the boy tore his eyes away from her.

That was weird.

"We are rescuing him tonight so prepare yourselves."

* * *

' _It is so easy to love Naru-chan, don't you think?_ '

Todoroki took a bite of his rice, his mismatch eyes focused on the troubled look of his blond-haired friend. His heart ached slightly when Naruto stole a glance at him, blue eyes shining with so much concern for him. He should remind her to focus on Bakugou, on making sure the mission didn't go bad.

"If you want to go back now then you can do it as soon as we get there," Naruto informed him. She fiddled with the take-away onigrii, blue eyes fixated on the passing scenery. In front of them was the signboard which told them in just ten minutes they would be Yokohama City. "You and Kirishima can take the next train out."

He snorted and took a bite of his rice. "Kirishima and I are doing this because of our egos so it is too late for us to come back now."

"I am telling you this if you are starting to have doubts about this whole thing." Naruto unwrapped the onigrii and took a small nibble. She pulled a face at the sight of the tomato. "How the hell did I not read it had tomatoes?"

"You were in a hurry."

Naruto wrinkled her nose and offered him the eaten onigri. "Want it? I really don't like tomatoes or any vegetables."

He regarded the onigiri and then glanced back at his own plate food. Nodding his head, he handed her the meal he brought from the convenience store and Naruto brightened up. From the other side of the aisle, Hinata offered him a raised eyebrow. He looked away from her and focused on the onigiri in his hands.

' _Would you do this for anyone?'_

Todoroki still didn't know.

"Yokohama is another city right?" Naruto whispered, blue eyes fixated on the city lights. A small frown played on her lips and the knitted eyebrows spoke volumes of her worry. Did she have doubts about their abilities of saving Bakugou? The confident girl who seemed so sure about her chances of saving their classmate.

"You are having doubts about saving Bakugou."

Naruto jerked her head. "We're more than capable of saving Bakugou."

He tilted his head at her. Tension seemed to be coiled around Naruto's shoulder as if there was another thing which concerned her. If his suspicions were right then his friend would have relaxed by now and confessed about her doubts. Instead she was still coiled like a spring and it worried him.

"Something else is bothering you."

"Hinata told me the other day that the other teams were looking for me…that they are scattered throughout Japan," Naruto stared at his bento with a tiny weary smile playing on her lips. "Who am I going to meet with now? Hinata-chan is my best friend but the others…will they accept my decision? The mission must always come first and I can't reason with them while saving Bakugou."

"Hinata chose you over the mission and they might understand your decision." He locked his eyes on her. Blue eyes shone with doubt, so much doubt that it felt uncharacteristic of Naruto. The Naruto he knew was confident in her skills but it was always another story when it came to Konoha. "Tell me something about the other teams."

"Team Seven used to consist of Sasuke, Sakura and me," Naruto played with the rice and stared at the passing lights. "Our teacher was Kakashi Hatake. I told you about how Sakura-chan was in love with the Bastard and how she used to call me names…"

"You still call her Sakura-chan even though she hurt you." He observed her.

Naruto pressed her lips into a frown. "It is a habit, I guess. She used to be really nice to me when we were kids. She did play with me in the playground before her parents warned her against me because of my furry little problem. Ever since that day she was a little bit mean to me but when we became Team Seven she did get better with her behaviour and she wasn't the worst from the bullies. The worst came from Ami…that bitch kept reminding me of my orphan status."

"Still no excuse for her behaviour." He knew Naruto always made excuses for the person who bullied her and till this day Shouto couldn't understand it. The same went for Midoriya and how he never had a problem with interacting with Bakugou despite all the things he had done to him. If it wasn't Naruto's call then if he told the whole class about their plan, Midoriya would have come.

"I know."

"What about Kakashi?"

Naruto took a bite of her rice, blue eyes seemed to be at a daze. "My feelings about my teacher had always been complicated. He acknowledged me in some way but when it came to teaching, he seemed to focus more on Sasuke. The technique Sasuke used to nearly kill me, well he learnt it from Kakashi-sensei and I understand why Kakashi-sensei taught him the jutsu."

"Naruto…"

"Sasuke was going to go against Gaara and Gaara wasn't exactly right in the head at the time." Naruto grimaced. "So in order to increases Sasuke's chance of surviving, he taught him the Chidori but I resent him in a way because there was a chance that I would have fought Gaara. Kakashi-sensei used to bring me groceries and tell me the importance of eating healthy but…"

"You wish he did more for you."

His friend nodded. "I respect Kakashi-sensei and I will always respect him but there are certain things I just couldn't stand. The constant criticism over the way I did things or the fact he gave me to Ebisu, saying I needed to master my basics. If I had a problem with my basics then why didn't he tell me earlier? Why didn't he try and teach me? If it wasn't for Ero-Sennin, I might still be lacking in my basics."

Todoroki regarded his friend. There was a small smile playing on her lips but he could clearly hear the slight resentment in her voce when it came to her explanation about her teacher. He took a bite of the onigir, lips curled in slight distaste at the amount of salt used in the dish. If Kakashi was willing to give advice to Naruto about eating healthy then maybe the man did care for her.

But maybe not enough to show Naruto about how much he cared.

' _You have arrived in Yokohama city.'_

* * *

"I smell Naruto."

Kakashi flickered his eyes downwards to Pakkun who had his ears perked up as his tail wiggled in a certain direction. Currently the three of them were in the city centre of Kamino Ward, which was apparently a district of Yokohama City. The first city they checked was Kobe but it turned to be a bust after two days of scanning the area and no scent.

The second city they visited had been Hiroshima and while Kakashi appreciated the beauty of the city, it had not been the city Naruto chose to live in. He tried asking the people where U.A High was but each time the people gave them strange looks like they expected them to know where it is. Apparently U.A High was a very famous and prestigious high school that wasn't very easy for anyone to get in.

"In which direction?" Sakura asked.

Pakkun sniffed the air again and twisted to the east. Kakashi shot a glance at Sakura and proceeded to run through the crowds, his lone eye searching for his missing student. What was Naruto thinking when she run away? Didn't he make it clear to her what running away meant? Out of everyone in Team Seven, she was the last person he would suspect to do this.

He slowed down when he saw a huge crowd surrounding a large television screen plastered on the side of the building. Three people wearing suits bowed, not revealing their eyes to the world. Around him, Kakashi could hear the whispers and could almost feel the sombre air around them. He was so focused on the television screen, he didn't realize Sakura now stood beside him.

" _Due to gross inadequacy on our part, 20 freshmen in the department of heroics suffered injuries."_ The television zoomed into the expression of the three men. Each one of them looked sobre but the one who stood out to him was the man in the middle. The redness of his eyes spoke volumes of his lack of sleep. " _Even though it was a camp for hero training, we neglected to properly set safety measures against villainous intent. We deeply regret causing the people any worry and we offer our sincerest apologies. We are truly, profoundly sorry."_

"Aizawa-sensei looks so pissed off."

Kakashi jerked his head and looked at the teens standing a couple of feet away. He twisted his body around and his eye widened at the sight of Naruto standing around a group of people. His lips twitched into a frown when he caught sight of Team Eight standing beside her along with two other boys.

If Team Eight found her then why hadn't they tried to tell them? And why was there six people? Instead of just the four of them,

"Aizawa-sensei doesn't like the media right?" The red haired boy questioned Naruto. Kakashi stole a glance at Sakura who seemed to have her eyes fixed on Naruto. He grabbed Sakura's hand, stopping the girl from immediately chasing after his missing student. This was not the time for them to make a scene not when everyone had their eyes on the television screen.

A man stood up in the television, his hands wrapped around a microphone and a determined expression plastered on his head.

" _NHA here. This would mark the fourth time this year that the students have come into contact with villains,"_ The journalist directed his eyes to the black-haired man who looked utterly calm at the situation. _'Please tell us what sort of explanation you gave to each of their families before this latest incident where a few students have sustained injuries as well as faced a kidnapping attempt. What measures have been put into effect?"_

"They make them sound like criminals," Sakura whispered, eyebrows knitted together. Kakashi grimaced and stared at Naruto. The blue-eyed girl had her eyes fixed on the black-haired man on the screen, lips pressed into a thin line and eyebrows knitted together. Tension rolled off her shoulders and Kakashi knew Naruto was furious of the situation at hand.

The mismatch boy beside Naruto placed his hand on her shoulder and Naruto stole a glance at him. Immediately the tension on his student's shoulder relaxed, a small reassuring smile played on her lips and Kakashi wondered what exactly was the relationship between them. He glanced at Sakura who stared thoughtfully at the teens.

" _We have reinforced the security around the school grounds and we have once again put in-campus crime prevention system under review."_ The mouse said evenly and calmly. His paws laid on the table and there were no emotions shining through his eyes. _"We are guaranteeing the safety of our students through our_ _ **strong stance**_ _as we explained to all of you before."_

Yells broke out all around them. The pedestrians glared at the camera, looking at the three educators with so much fury and anger that it seemed like it would not be long before a fight broke out.

"They aren't protected at all!"

"The hell are these idiots saying!"

Another journalist stood up with a notebook in his hand. " _Eraserhead-san, earlier you talked about **the**_ **_safety of the students_** ," the journalist seemed to have a slight smirk as he emphasised those words. _"But it seems that in the middle of the event, you urged the students to engage in battle. Tell us of your intentions if you would?"_

The man Eraserhead leaned forward and crouched slightly lower. _"It is because we weren't able to grasp the situation fully that we were forced to make that call – in order to avoid the worst case scenario?"_

" _The worst case scenario?"_ The journalist curled his lips into a frown. " _As many as 16 students were injured and one has even been taken captive. Would you not call that the worst case scenario?"_

Kakashi sweated at the line of questioning used by the journalist. If this journalist had been in Konoha when he heard what happened about Naruto and Sasuke then no doubt the line of questioning would have been worst on him. At least this man didn't have any students who nearly died as most of the students seemed to be alive.

" _At the time the worst case scenario that I could see was the students getting killed, helpless to resist."_ Eraserhead declared calmly, eyes focused on the journalist. The journalist snorted but did not dare to counterargue the teacher's words.

 _"The majority of the damage to the students was born of the gas attack_ ," Nedzu reminded them. _"Thanks to Kendou and Tetsutetsu's swift response along with another third part, no lives were lost. In addition, we are currently seeing to their mental health. However, at this time we cannot determine what, if or any deep psychological scars."_

" _And are you trying to say we should be thankful for small mercies?_ " The journalist stilted his eyes at the heroes.

Nedzu pressed his paws tightly against the table. _"I believe that any harm to their futures would be the worst case scenario."_

A fire lit up in the journalist eyes and a small smirk curled around his lips. All around Kakashi, the people stared at the heroes with so much anger and hurt for the actions caused by the villains. The girls to his right were openly complaining about the bad security and judgement by the teachers. He pressed his lips into a thin line as Sakura frowned at the words spoken by the people around them.

 _"Could you say the same of the future of the student who was kidnapped?"_ The journalist demanded. _"He won second place in the Sports Festival and during the Sludge Man incident, he was able to hold out resisting a formidable villain. His records of achievements to be certain, reflects a hero with considerable strength. However, his anger after losing the tournament and the attitude he showed during his matches indicate a mental instability on his part."_

Kakashi pressed his lips into a thin line at those words.

" _So what if they kidnapped him because they had their eyes on all that?"_ The journalist continued. _"What if he was captivated by their clever talk? And he is now tainted by them? If you have any confidence that he does, in fact, have a future then_ _ **please tell**_ _!"_

Kakashi stiffened at those words. Memories of trying to reason with Sasuke flooded through his mind and he glanced at Sakura wondering if she also recalled the day his other student run away to meet Orochimaru. There was no need to look at Naruto because he knew the girl carried the reminder of what the dark path had done to Sasuke.

Eraserhead darkened at the words spoken, his lips curled into a thin line while his partner shot a nervous glance at him. The man relaxed his shoulder and bowed down earning gasps from the crowd around them.

" _With regards to what happened, I acknowledge it was my fault,_ " Eraserhead admitted. His eyes sharpened. _"His actions at the Sports Festival originates in what he considers **ideal strength**. He is trying harder than anyone in his pursuit of becoming the Top Hero. If the villains saw that and thought they had an opening, then I believe they are being short-sighted."_

 _"And Uzumaki? What have you done in regards to her?"_ Kakashi stiffened while Sakura furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. " _They intended to kidnap your student and I wonder if it is due to her tragic history. It has been confirmed by several people that Uzumaki Naruto is a girl who until recently have been living by herself. No parents, no one to guide her in the right path until recently but she might blame society for not helping her. Do you think there is a probability if the villains had kidnapped her that she would be swayed by them?"_

 _"Uzumaki may be a girl who had been alone all her life but do not insult her mental capabilities,"_ Eraserhead declared, eyes narrowed at the man. _"It is true that she has been alone all her life and despite what Uzumaki faced in society, she has more mental strength than anyone of us could ever hope to have. To think a couple of words would sway her is to insult her determination and her intelligence."_

 _Naruto would never walk a path of darkness that much anyone can agree._ He glanced at Naruto and felt his lips curled into a thin line when he saw the smile playing on her lips. The mismatch boy had his hand around her, whispering a couple of words to her ears. She nodded, shooting the boy a smile and Kakashi vividly recall Kushina and the way she smiled at Minato-sensei.

It seemed like Naruto found someone she loved with all her heart.

Kakashi must have been staring at Naruto for a long time because she swirled her head around as if suddenly realizing there was another presence in the area. Blue eyes met his lone eye and Kakashi felt his throat tightened when he saw the emotions shining through them.

The most prominent emotion was hurt.

"We gotta go and hurry up with rescuing Explosive Head," Naruto declared to the group as she tore her eyes away from him. Kakashi took another step forward but the crowds of people started to hurdle together, making it harder for him to see where Naruto was heading off to.

"We should follow her, Kakashi-sensei." Sakura declared, green eyes fixed on Naruto's fading back.

He knew it but the sight of her hurt bothered him. There was a time when Naruto's eyes lit up at the sight of him and a time when she would greet him. Now at the sight of her fading back, he couldn't help but feel like there was a distance between them. A distance that he wondered he unintentionally created by not giving her the praises she craved for or for not being there for her when she needed him.

He needed to talk to her and understand what was going on before taking her back to Konoha.

It was not his call to let her stay here since she needed to tell the Council and Tsunade of her intenton and her loyalty to Konoha.

She needed to find a way to get their permission to leave the village.

Although Kakashi knew the probability was low because as long as Naruto carried the Kyuubi inside of her stomach. He would vouch for Naruto because out of his three students, Kakashi knew his student was not capable of harming the village.

To think so was, as Eraserhead said, an insult to Naruto's heart and her intelligence.

* * *

A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter


	49. Chapter 49

**A/N: I would like to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows as well as reviews.**

* * *

Naruto dug her fingers against her skin as she tried to ignore her teammate and Kakashi-sensei's chakra signature.

It was going to happen sooner or later from what Hinata told her but she prayed to Kami that it would happen after saving Bakugou from those villains. Would they interrupt her plans? If civilians weren't present then Naruto would have asked Todoroki to freeze the ground to stop her teammate and teacher from following them.

"Kakashi-sensei and Sakura are following us."

Naruto grimaced at the reminder. She twisted her head around, eyes locked on her former teacher and teammate. Sakura's eyes flashed with determination and another emotion Naruto could not make out. Perhaps once they finished their mission then she would think about the emotion shining from her former teammate's eyes. Time was of the essence and Naruto was not going to waste her time trying to explain her decision to them. She darted her eyes to Shouto and Kirishima.

"Who is Kakashi-sensei and Sakura?"

Pink lips pressed into a thin line. Naruto stiffened her shoulders and took long deep breaths to calm down her raging emotions. She stole a glance at Todoroki, who stared back at her with concern eyes. He darted his eyes to Kirishima and then to her, his eyes asking her if she wanted him to spill the truth.

Naruto took a deep breath and nodded, forcing herself to give Todoroki a large smile. She ignored the concern eyes of her friend, focusing her attention on following Kiba. The brown-haired boy seemed intent on charging through the crowds with Akamaru on his heel, barking and growling at the civilians standing in their way.

"Kakashi used to be Naruto's teacher and Sakura was Naruto's teammate."

Red eyes grew wide at his words. He swirled his head at Naruto, eyebrows knitted together. "I thought only they were the only one trying to drag you back home."

"We all have orders to bring Naruto back home from Hokage-sama," Hinata explained. Pale milky eyes focused on the corner ahead, her pale eyes seemed to harden and she pursed her lips. The actions spoke volumes to Naruto about how unhappy she was of the mission because Hinata rarely visualize her annoyance to the world. Her friend stole a glance at Naruto, her eyes silently asking her if she wanted her to stop and deal with Sakura and Kakashi.

Naruto rubbed her arms and darted her eyes to the back, swallowing the lump down her throat as her mind battled between getting to Bakugou first or to confront her former teammate and teacher. _What was that literature thing Cementoss-sensei made us memorize for the exam? I think it said something about taking the road less travelled by and how it makes a difference or something like that._ The logical decision would be to confront them but she was not being ruled by logic.

Her emotions guided her, pulling and tugging her to save her classmate. Guilt and desire ruled her for Naruto didn't wish to make the same mistakes as last time. It had been too late for her to reason with Sasuke, to make him realize the gravity of the situation but it was different with Bakugou. Her fellow blonde must be fighting tooth and nail against their words, refusing whatever offer they had for him.

"Naru-chan?"

"Our number one priority is to get Bakugou out of there without engaging into a fight with the League of Villains." She kept her voice steady and calm, blue eyes not revealing her emotions to them. Her throat burned at the thought of confronting her teammate and teacher at this moment. "I will deal with Kakashi-sensei and Sakura-chan later."

"They will ruin the operation if they don't know what is happening," Hinata observed. "Do you really wish to risk them interrupting the mission?"

Naruto pressed her tongue against her cheek, cheeks puffed out as she mulled over her words. Was she willing to stop what she was doing and tell them of her decision? Or would she charge on, desperate to rescue one of her classmates? Her stomach rolled over as her mind conjured images of what the League of Villains would do to Bakugou if he didn't agree to their wishes.

She directed her eyes to Hinata and offered her a smile, her blue eyes blazing with determination. The crowds around them started to shuffle to the sides, their eyebrows knitted together and yelling at them for running recklessly through the streets.

"If anything goes wrong then I am counting on Kakashi-sensei to have my back."

Several pair of eyes widened at her words. Kirishima jerked his head at her. Shouto pressed his lips into a thin line. Hinata raised her eyebrows while Shino just tilted his head. Naruto just offered a smile, knowing just how insane she sounded to them. A part of her resented them for their action—resented them for how they seemed to care more about Sasuke than her.

' _Don't worry, I will protect you guys even if it kills me.'_

The words tickled her ears, reminding her of a time when Kakashi-sensei declared those words so carelessly and so confidently. It sounded cool to a twelve year old. It made Naruto feel like maybe her distant teacher might just give a crap about the three of them.

Now it was a test for her to see whether Kakashi might save her ass if she screwed up this mission.

"Sakura is also no joke Naru-chan." Hinata chewed on her bottom lip. "I think it was just a few days before you left Konoha but Sakura begged Hokage-sama to train her as a medic nin and out of everyone in Konoha, she is considered to be one of the best medic nins. What she did is terrible and I still haven't forgiven her for careless words but if we get injured then we need her."

 _Train by the Old Hag? Why?_ Sakura had been the weakest link between the three of them and Naruto would never deny it. During the Wave mission, her teammate had done nothing while Sasuke and her fought Haku. Her teammate did get better and Naruto would never deny the fact Sakura tried her hardest to protect them when they were knocked out by Orochimaru.

Was it for Sasuke?

It probably was.

"I won't allow my emotions to cloud my judgement."

It was a vow for both her mission and for what was to come ahead. Emotions were important to her—it allowed her to know she was completely and utterly human but emotions would not allow her to make the right call.

This mission needed her to make the right decision.

* * *

They kept running until Akamaru stopped at an empty street. The lack of pedestrians along with the lack of cars spoke volumes to Naruto about how abandoned this place was. She tensed, willing for the memories of her time in the streets to fade away. Deserted streets had always been the best place to hide from those cold eyes but it was also the worst place to be found.

She stole a glance at Hinata.

"Are they awake or asleep?"

Hinata held her finger up and directed her chakra to her eyes. The veins of her forehead visualized, throbbing and her friend rotated her head. Pale eyes revealed nothing about what was going on and Naruto feared for what might be happening to her friend. Todoroki and Kirishima had their backs turned, eyes locked on for any incoming threat.

"They are awake," Hinata whispered. "All of the villains that escaped from the Training Camp is here. Bakugou doesn't have any chains around him but he seems to be furious," she knitted her eyebrows. "I can't tell what he is telling them."

Her friend deactivated the Byakugan and pressed her lips into a thin line. Pale eyes shone with concern and fear, telling Naruto about how much her friend did not like her plan. Turquoise eyes burned behind her head and the whiskered girl stole a glance at her Todoroki, uncertain whether to ask him about the relationship between them.

"Is the Blackmist guy here?" Naruto questioned.

Hinata nodded and the whiskered girl tapped her fingers against her cheeks. A quick glance to the top of the building showed her that Kakash-sensei and Sakura were still observing her, eyebrows knitted together as if they were either concern for her or wondering exactly what she planned to do. The thought nearly tugged her lips, nearly made her believe they gave a crap about her well being.

 _Fool, our greatest weapon isn't your jutsu or your seals Naruto—it is your brain._ Uncle Kenji words echoed in her mind as her brain mulled over how to rescue their classmate without involving anyone. _I am telling you this because you don't get it._ Naruto slumped her shoulders and tilted her head.

She curled her lips.

"You know if you can't go up then why don't we go down?" Hinata's eyes grew large at her words and Naruto gestured for her friend to move everyone back. Kirishima tilted his head, eyebrows scruntched together while Todoroki narrowed his eyes as if he knew her insane plan. She stole a glance at her teammate and teacher, locking her eyes on them.

 _Uncle Kenji said the idea can work in theory since it is still spelled out but no one has tried it out before._ Naruto channelled her chakra to the tip of her fingers and began to draw letters to the ground. Desperate times called for desperate measures and Naruto did not want to risk the psychological damage Bakugou might be going through.

She gave one final glance at Kakashi-sensei and Sakura. Her sensei looked at her with wide eyes, almost like he didn't believe what she just did. Her teammate's eyes shone with curiosity and wonder but the lack of growth in her eyes surprised her. In the days of their Academy, it had been Sakura and the other fangirls who accused her of cheating off Sasuke.

They called her the idiot when all Naruto wanted to do was show her brains.

"As soon as the timer reaches three seconds, I want all of you to step away." Naruto instructed, blue eyes fixed on the characters being drawn by her chakra. Sweat gathered around their forehead, their eyes flashed with concern of her insane plan. The original plan had to be scrapped and her accidental seal was going to be used on them.

She fixed her eyes on Todoroki and Kirishima. The two teens stared at her with concern and Naruto pointed to the top of the building, fixing her eyes on her teacher and teammate. "If it looks like I am going to get hurt or be taken by some villains than go there and tell those two to come down and help me."

"Shouldn't we get a Pro Hero?" Kirishima demanded.

Naruto closed her eyes. "Do you think they will get here on time? The only way they can get here is if they have a fucking clue on where this thing is and the only person that can run quick is either Kiba or Hinata. Their fighting style requires speed."

"Why didn't you tell your cousin?"

"Because Uzushiokage will just stop me from doing this," she focused on keeping the strokes even and neat. One wrong stroke and the consequence would be dire without some kind of paper or medium to anchor them. The use of blood made a seal stronger but to use ones energy to make a seal meant it was ten times stronger. "If there is even a slight probability I might have to fight a couple of B-rank villains then he would put his foot down."

She finished drawing the final character and weaved her hands through the complicated set of hand signs. The ground had a light bluish glow as numbers appeared, telling her friends about the length of time before she charged in there.

"Did you stop to think why he would put his foot down?" Todoroki demanded. "He cares about you Naruto. Your Uncle gives a shit about you, we all do and I don't think even Bakugou will be happy with your actions."

Naruto thinned her lips. "You expect me to just sit there and wait for them to sleep? The best time is now: Bakugou has no chains and that makes escape easier for him. If I wait for them to sleep and Bakugou gets pissed off then it makes no difference. With them awake and being surprised…it is the best option."

"I hope you know what you are doing Naruto and we will talk about this later." Naruto's eyes grew large when she saw the worry in his eyes. She clicked her feet together, ignoring the worried looks of her classmates and friends.

 _Ten_ _…_

Naruto prayed her memories of Kakashi's words were true.

 _Nine_ _…_

She didn't know if Sakura would choose to help her or choose to take her away.

 _Eight_ _…_ _Seven._

Bakugou better not make a fuss when she saved his ass.

 _Six_ _…_ _Five_ _…_ _Four_ _…_

Uncle Kenji was going to throttle her when he found out about her plans.

 _Three_ _…_

Aizawa-sensei might just yell at her for being insane and not telling the Pro Heroes they found Bakugou's location.

 _Two_ _…One_

This might be ranked as one of the most insane ideas she ever had and Naruto knew she had many.

 _Boom!_

* * *

His ears rang as the villain scrambled, eyes flickering and heads jerking at the sound made. The wall around them crumbled, revealing them to the world but nothing seemed to greet them. How? He knew of no hero who could cause an explosion like him and none of his classmates had a quirk like his. The villains glanced at each other before walking out of the broken walls.

Tension rolled off their shoulders as they tried to find the source of the explosion. Even the creepy guy was out, his eyes darting for the culprit of the explosion. Bakugou tensed up when someone poked him in the back. He twisted his head around and opened his mouth to swear, only for a pair of slim tan hands to covered his mouth and pulled him under the ground.

There was a dark tunnel around them, no lights to show them the way and Bakugou wondered how Whiskers found a way to him.

"What the hell, Whiskers!" He growled as the two of them crawled through the dark tunnel. Above the ground, Bakugou could hear chaos and confusion as they talked to someone. Red eyes flashed with curiosity when he heard them yelling at him to come back. He heard the bar chairs being knocked over from the above the ground. "I don't want to be saved and what the hell did you do for them to think that…"

"Disguise my shadow clone as you," Whiskers waved for him to continue climbing out of here. He lit a small explosion, trying his hardest to make it as quiet as it can be. She nodded. "I know you don't want to be saved by me and I know you can rescue yourself if given the opportunity but let us make life easier."

"How the fuck did you find me?"

"Thank Shino when you see him." Bakugou felt his lips twitched into a smirk when he caught sight of the moonlight shining downwards. Whiskers twitched her nose. "One of his bugs found you in that stupid bar and they gave us the exact coordinates of where to find you. Akamaru found your scent and Hinata told me that you had no shackles so…"

"I am only going with you because this is my best chance of escape." He pulled himself out of the hole and slumped against the road, breathing in the sweet taste of fresh air. Bakugou jerked his head at Naruto. The blonde yanked herself up and took a seat beside him. "This doesn't mean shit, you know that."

Naruto grinned. "You're welcome."

 _I didn't thank you._ He scowled at her and stared up at the night sky before glancing at the girl that never seemed to give a shit about his behaviour. He didn't know whether to yell at her those words or to focus on just getting out of here. It would be a matter of time before those villains realize he escaped from their shit hole.

"How the hell did you make a fucking bomb?"

"I used my brain and drew the relevant characters in the right order to make one." Naruto curled her lip and stared at the building in front of them. Bakugou narrowed his eyes at the tiredness shining through his classmate's eyes. Out of everyone in their whole year group, Naruto was the only one who didn't get tired so easily.

"What the hell is happening, Whiskers?"

"Well you got kidnapped and I along with Kirishima, Shouto and Hinata-chan came to save…"

Bakugou narrowed his eyes at her. "Stop the bullshit and start talking Whiskers."

"You weren't even there when I told everyone…"

"I know you are a fucking kunoichi and I don't give a shit about that fucking monster inside your stomach." Blue eyes widened at her words. She jerked her head at him, her mouth opening and closing as she tried to process what he just freely admitted to her. If he hadn't been tricked by Kirishima to go and visit her in the damn hospital with everyone else then Bakugou would have never known the truth.

"You were the one who overheard All Might and me."

Bakugou snorted. "That frog girl also overheard you. You were fucking cry your heart out and you were so fucking loud that anyone could have heard you."

Naruto stared at him for a couple of seconds before nodding her head, blue eyes softening as if she just realized. "You are fucking terrible at telling people that you give a shit about them, do you know that?"

 _I don't give a shit about you or anyone._ Bakugou scowled and opened his mouth to tell the girl those words, only to stop when Naruto gestured for someone to come. He blinked his eyes when a huge dog charged at them, picking him up by the collar and throwing him at the back. Twisting his head, he glared at his classmate.

"What the fuck…"

"You are exhausted as hell and Akamaru will be happy to drop you off to the police station." A voice spoke out from behind him and Bakugou scrunched his eyebrows together as he tried to recall the boy in front of him. Right, the guy was one of Uzumaki's friends. The one that had a huge ass dog. "Naruto, you should start heading off…"

Naruto shook her head and stared out at the torn apart bar, blue eyes fixated on the black liquid surrounding the bar.

"Go and get Bakugou out of here, Kiba and whatever you do, protect him with your life." Blue eyes hardened as a pair of shoes stepped out of the portal. Bakugou stiffened at the wavering tone from Whiskers. _Uzumaki has never been scared before._ He stole a glance at the dog boy beside him, who also seemed to have start sweating at the sight. The both of them knew that Whiskers was not the type of girl easily scared. "Now!"

Those were Whisker's last words to them.

* * *

 _So much hate._ Naruto could only gulp at the man in front of her, blue eyes drinking in the sight of the well-dressed man who wore a skull-like mask. He looked down at her and Naruto wondered what was behind that mask. Was the man furious with her for ruining his plans? Did he plan to kill her? Because Naruto wasn't going to go down without a fight.

"Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto stiffened at the mention of her full name. "You are the girl that Tomura claims that has a quirk similar to All Might but we both know that isn't true…right little kunoichi."

Naruto stiffened at the mention of her status. _He knows_. She pushed herself up from the ground and glared at the large villain. How the hell did he know of her previous job? She only told her classmates about being a kunoichi a few days ago. She also never met the man before so it was impossible for him to figure it out in just a few minutes.

"You know what is interesting about you, ninjas?" The man strolled towards her. The amount of hate emitting from the man froze her, threatened to consume her because of how vast it was. He picked her up by the throat. His large hands wrapped around her, almost effectively stopping her from breathing. "Not everyone has a Quirk or what do you people call it…ah Kekkai Genkai, yet you people possess Chakra. Until Quirks came about, our people were jealous of yours and your capability of mimicking the characters in the comics…"

Naruto closed her eyes and slammed her head against the mask. The man stumbled, his hands loosening his grip over her neck. She pushed his hand away from her and fell down to the ground. _The way he talks makes me think that he is older than a hundred years old._ Naruto rubbed her neck and took a couple of deep breaths, trying to regain control of herself.

"Your physical strength can rival All Might…perhaps it even surpasses his strength." The man declared, pressing his mask tightly against his head. "But your strength doesn't come from your muscles nor your chakra, it comes from the beast inside of you. If what _he_ told us was true…if given the right incentive, you might just defeat All Might and get rid of him. He told us if we brought you to _him_ then we can use you as we see fit."

Dread crept up at her as the villain strolled back to her. Her friends didn't know how capable the Kyuubi was nor did she elaborate properly to them. They implied Akatsuki. Blue eyes narrowed her eyes and Naruto hardened her resolve, pushed herself up and weaved her hands to make a couple of shadow clones.

Clouds of smoke erupted as two hundred copies of herself surrounded the area.

"Who are you working with?" Naruto demanded as her clones charged at the villain. She channelled her chakra around her hand, swirling and spinning it until the Rasengan formed. The villain swung his fist at the clones, popping them out of existence. Flashes of the impact appeared right behind her eyes and the blonde ignored it. "And you don't know a damn thing about me."

"You were born unlucky—no parents and no guardians in the village that your parents gave their life away." She gritted her teeth as the villain held his hand out at her direction. His arms buffed up and before Naruto could even blink her eyes, a huge blast of air shot towards her. This disintegrated her Rasengan. She directed more chakra to the soles of her feet, trying to stop herself from flying through the air. "At the age of five, you run away from the orphanage and you were forced to live in the streets."

 _How the fuck does he know this?_ Naruto grinded her teeth together as the man strolled towards her. She channelled again, trying to increase the speed in which to make her Rasengan. Blue eyes hardened when the man came close to her.

She smashed the Rasengan against the man's mask, cracking it open for her to see. Bile rose to her throat when the mask revealed a man without a face, not even eyes for her to see. How could he see? Sweat started to build around her forehead,

"It doesn't mean shit," Naruto declared evenly, trying her best not to show the man he frightened her.

Blood seeped out of the man's face but despite experiencing the full burnt of the Rasengan, his injuries were slowly stitching themselves up. _A Regeneration Quirk!_ The only way she could defeat him was to inflict the injuries faster than he could heal them.

"Doesn't it? The people of Konoha hated an innocent child and ignored you despite the fact you showed signs to be just as good as your Father." Naruto stiffened at the reminder. "And instead of encouraging it, of letting your talents be cultivated, they threw it all away. Don't you wish to show them how much better you are? What you are capable of becoming? Prove to them that their words are wrong."

' _ **They have always treated us like shit. They mocked us even though we had more talent than they ever had. They shunned us and isolated us from the other kids.'**_

Her breath hitched as a cruel voice similar to her own echoed in her ears. Memories of her lonely childhood played right in front of her eyes. Sakura's cruel words. Ami pulling her hair and taunting her for being parentless, telling her that her parents never loved her. The other kids avoiding her as she tried to ask them to play with her. Parents whispering to each other and looking at her with those cruel eyes.

"Shannaro! Get your hands off Naruto!"

Blue eyes widened as Sakura drilled her fist against the man's face, sending him flying to the other side of the building. The building's wall crackled and tumbled, falling down on the man. She blinked at the sight of Kakashi standing right in front of her, his hand stretched out to her.

Right behind them was All-Might and man did her teacher looked furious.

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 **A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter.**


	50. Chapter 50

A/N: I would like to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows as well as everyone that reviewed the last chapter. This chapter was very difficult for me to write.

* * *

"Naruto?"

Naruto stared at the stretched hand of her former teacher, his slender fingers calling out to her to take his hand and have a leap of faith in his abilities. Her brain shut down as it tried to process what just happened. The Villain reminded her of those days of loneliness, of the days where she tried her hardest to get the recognition she clearly craved.

She pressed her hands against the ground and pushed herself up, ignoring the stretched out hand of her former teacher. Blue eyes locked on the furious blue eyes belonging to All Might. Her teacher searched her, his eyes scanning for any signs of injuries.

"I see that not only All Might is here but also your teammate and teacher are here to save me." The Villain pushed himself up of the rubble and locked his head on the hero in front of them. Naruto knitted her eyebrows together and stared at All Might. The man had his eyes fixed on the villain right in front of them, blue eyes blazing with so much adulterous rage that Naruto found it hard to connect the image with the goofy teacher who insisted on working on their teamwork skills.

"You tried to manipulate Uzumaki and you nearly took Bakugou away." All Might declared, charging towards the faceless man. The hero cut through the area like a bullet, his large fists poised behind his head. Kakashi and Sakura blinked when All Might attempted to sock the villain in the cheek. Just as the man was about to pressed his fist against the villain's face, the villain caught his punch.

Naruto channelled her chakra to the ground as a huge gust of wind swept through the area. She grabbed hold of Kakashi-sensei and Sakura, stopping the two of them from flying through the sheer impact of the punch. Yanking them back to the ground, Naruto fixated her blue eyes on the fight in front of her.

She never really understood just how strong All Might was until just now and Naruto now understood just how powerful their opponent was. To withstand a chakra-powered punch and to catch All Might's punch spoke volumes of just how strong the bastard was.

This Villain was not like the other villains she faced, he was in a whole different level from the ones she faced.

Naruto took a step forward. Her chest tightened as a thousand images appeared before her eyes of how this scenario might just end for everyone. It was well known to everyone in Japan that not many people could withstand his punch much less block it. Her throat dried. If this man could match with her teacher then there was no doubt in her mind about how dangerous this fight was.

"You've gotten weaker, All Might." The Villain chuckled darkly at those words. Naruto swirled her head to her teacher who crouched down, one hand on the ground and one knee facing the sky. His face was still covered by the dust caused by the impact. Slowly the clouds of dust disappear, revealing to her the face of her furious teacher. The furrowed eyebrows and the grinded teeth told Naruto everything about the truth behind his words.

"What about you? Aren't you overexerting yourself?" All Might hopped and the slight excitement of his tone told Naruto about her teacher's desire to defeat him. "I won't make the same mistake as I did six years ago, All For One! I will protect young Uzumaki! And this time, I will throw you in prison for sure. And all of the League of Villains you control with you!"

Her eyes grew large at the declaration. Her teacher clenched his hands into a tight ball of fist and curled his back downwards, knees slightly bent. _Distraction. They probably won't notice if I do something now._ Naruto chewed on her lips and weaved her hands through the familiar hand seals. Clouds of smoke appeared as she created a hundred shadow clones to fill the area.

All Might launched himself at All For One, poised to slam him against the wall. All For One held his hand out, red lights crackling around his arm. His arm grew larger as if it looked ready to explode. Blue eyes widened as she realized what the villain planned to do to her teacher.

Cursing under her breath, Naruto flickered her eyes to the surrounding clones. All Might wouldn't know which one was the real her and if she attacked then he would slow down. The man and Aizawa made it damn clear to her throughout these three months that they gave a shit about her well-being. What could she do? Blue eyes widened as an image appeared in her head.

As All Might drew closer to the villain, a large gust of wind exploded from the palm of his hand. All Might flew back, crashing through several buildings. The ground cracked and trembled from the sheer force of the attack. The buildings, in which All Might crashed, crumbled and crashed at the impact. Her clones exploded from the sheer force.

"I haven't forgotten about you Uzumaki." All For One declared, taking a step closer to her. His head focused on her, lips curled into a thin line. Kakashi rushed to stand right in front of her, his lone eye focused on the villain that seemed intent on taking her away. Why was her teacher standing in front of her? Her throat dried up as Sakura smashed her hand on the ground, causing the whole earth to shake. "I still need to take you."

"If you want to take Naruto then you have to go through me." Kakashi declared. "You are not taking one of my students."

All For One tilted his head. "Your student? Where was this desire of her safety when she came back from her mission with a hole to her chest? You were the one that nearly got her killed."

Kakashi stiffened at those words. Sakura grimaced and sweated, green eyes flashing in confusion at how the Villain knew about the incident from three years ago. Naruto just pressed her lips into a thin line, blue eyes narrowing at the knowledge shown by the man. _Who is he working with_? Itachi only just learnt about how his brother nearly killed her.

Naruto closed her eyes and pushed back the terrible thoughts that threatened to consume her. Channelling even more chakra to the soles of her feet, Naruto drilled her hand against the man's face. He flew several feet away, smashing through several buildings. The buildings cried as it crumbled down to the ground from the sheer attack.

"Naruto…"

"He was pissing me off and the asshole is a bastard if he thinks it is your damn fault for what happened." Naruto took a deep breath, smiled and twisted her whole body to look at her teacher and teammate. She relaxed her shoulders when All Might rushed towards her. His blue eyes hardened at the sight of her and the blonde knew she was going to be scolded.

"What were you thinking, young Uzumaki?" All Might demanded. "You should have never gotten yourself involved with this!"

"If I hadn't gotten myself caught then I would have been able to save Bakugou earlier." Naruto pressed her hands against her chest, forcing herself to smile at her teacher. All Might did not smile at her words, only looking more pained at her response. Kakashi and Sakura glanced at each other, looking at lost of what she just said. "You really don't follow the rules, do you Uzumaki?"

"Someone once told me that those who break the rules were trash but those who abandoned their friends were even worse than trash." Naruto locked her eyes on Kakashi-sensei. His lone eye grew slightly larger at her words before being masked as if he didn't want her to know his feelings. She smiled even wider. "A hero should be able to save their friends shouldn't they? Even if they are assholes."

She would do everything in her power to protect her teachers and teammate.

* * *

Eisuke stopped sprinting when he caught sight of the boy that they had been tasked with helping to capture. With that spikey blond hair and permanent scowl on his face, he knew this must be Bakugou. This was the kid that his cousin had been worrying about for the last five days. Right behind Bakugou was another boy that he didn't know, it was not someone that he recognised before. Green eyes widened when he caught sight of the headband on the boy's forehead.

Konoha.

This kid was from Konoha.

He stood right in front of the running teens and dog. Taking a deep breath, Eisuke leaked out some of his killer intent. His lips twitched when the dog halted, releasing the two teens from his back. He grabbed hold of Bakugou's collar and yanked the other teen, masking most of his emotions from them. He glared at the dog, who whimpered and sat down on the ground.

"Who the fuck are you?" Eisuke questioned, slamming the boy down on the ground. The kid's brown eyes widened. He tried to push him off but the hero only tightened his grip on him. Green eyes flashed with fury as a hundred scenarios appeared through his mind. "And what does your Hokage want from Bakugou?"

The kid stopped squirming. "How the hell do you know that I am a shinobi? I thought most people don't know…"

"He's related to Whiskers." Bakugou gritted out, his hand crackling with explosives. Eisuke twisted his head and raised his eyebrow at the kid, not one bit amused at the fact he was trying to threaten him to let go of him. His eyes widened when he heard what the kid just said. Did Naruto finally decide to tell them the truth? He found it hard to believe his cousin finally had the courage to do it.

"That make sense." He choked out.

Eisuke loosened his grip on the kid and dropped the boy to the ground. His hands on his hips as the kid rubbed his neck, purple and red handprints decorated his neck. Guilt coursed through him as he realized that he injured the kid at the pace of his anger. If the kid knew Naruto and those two kids weren't actually fighting with each other then there was a possibility that they were working together.

"What are you doing here?" Eisuke demanded again. "And why do you have Bakugou Katsuki with you?"

The boy took in several deep breaths. "My name is Inuzuka Kiba and I have this guy because Naruto made a plan to rescue him but something stopped her from…"

Eisuke's brain turned blank at those words. Naruto went and tried to rescue her classmate without telling or even giving him a hint of her plans. He clenched his hands into a fist and gritted his teeth. A large part of him was not surprised about this, not when he considered the type of personality Naruto had. Yet a small part of him felt furious for her recklessness and her lack of trust with his abilities.

"You still haven't answered my question: what are you doing here?"

The kid kept quiet and Eisuke narrowed his eyes, pulling out his sword. He pointed the sword at the kid, channelling lightning into the sword. He directed his lightning chakra to a single point, trying to make sure the lightning didn't hit Bakugou or any of the metals. The kid gulped, his eyes flickering at the scenes around them.

If the kid wanted to be safe then he shouldn't have gone for a crowded alleyway.

"The Hokage wants to bring Naruto back to Konoha." The kid declared. "We have been searching her for the last three years but we only finally narrow her location down when she showed her face in the Sports Festival."

Eisuke grimaced and stopped channelling his chakra through the sword. He placed his sword back at the shard, relaxing his shoulders while Kiba slumped down to the ground. _Dad wasn't kidding when he said Naruto would be hunted down by Konoha._ He curled his lips and stared at the panicking boy, before looking at Bakugou.

The kid looked confused at those words.

"What is your rank in Konoha? And how many people do you have looking for her?"

Kiba sweated. "I'm a Chunnin and there are eleven people."

"Ranks?"

"Nine Chunnin and two Jounin."

 _All of them must have a connection with Naruto in some form but something doesn't make sense._ Eisuke pressed his hands against his forehead, feeling a throbbing pain in the sides. Eleven Shinobi would be easy to deal with but Konoha would do anything to bring their weapon back. They would not have used so many chuunins and so little jounins to bring Naruto back.

Just because there weren't many people that could use chakra, doesn't mean heroes were no joke. Naruto had the backing of not just their clan but she had also the backing of the hero community. To think just sending a few people to bring her back made no sense.

He wondered if perhaps Konoha had another plan if they couldn't bring Naruto back.

* * *

Naruto wiped the blood off her lips as All Might continue to try and pummel All For One to the ground. The impact of her teacher's fist as well as All For One blocking the fist and using the numerous Quirks meant that the surrounding area around them had been destroyed. She and her team would charge at him, attempting to get a hit from him, only to be blew away. Kakashi-sensei's jutsu seemed to be of no use when considering that the man had quirks to counteract the ones Kakashi used.

Distantly, Naruto could hear the sound of helicopters hovering above them. A quick glance to the sky showed that there were reporter on one of the helicopters, her eyes flashing with fear and concern about the sight before them. The rubble, the injuries sustained by Kakashi and Sakura spoke as well as the struggle of All Might spoke volumes about how difficult this villain was.

"How can someone have so many Kekkai Genkai?" Sakura asked, wiping the sweat off her forehead. Her teammate glanced at her as if she had the answer to the question. Kakashi-sensei stood to the right of them, breathing heavily as he stared at the monsterous man.

 _It is impossible to have this many Quirks, a person only has one Quirk._ Naruto tilted her head and pressed her lips into a thin line. There was no way he was copying Quirks since none of them had a Kekkai Genkai. Kakashi's Sharingan wasn't natural which meant it would be hard for him to copy, right? Even then he would need to have some understanding on how it worked.

She clenched her hands into a fist and watched as All For One blocked All Might's punch. The man slid slightly, his hand slightly wobbled from the impact. _How does his Quirk work?_ There was no way all those Quirks were natural. Shouto's Quirk was a result of a combination of his parents' Quirks. It was his unique to him, not in any way similar to his family members.

 _It is almost like they belonged to other people and he stole it…_

Her blue eyes grew wide.

"He stole them." Sakura and Kakashi jerked their head at her, eyes growing larger. Naruto felt bile rising to her throat as the man wrapped strange claw-like materials around her teacher. _Is it possible for a Quirk to steal another Quirk?_ It should be impossible but Monoma could copy other people's Quirks. She saw that in the Sports Festival so it would not be a stretched to think stealing Quirks are possible.

"You figure it out," All For One declared as he swung her teacher around. The calmness of his voice frightened her, terrified her because wouldn't someone panic if they figure out what their Quirk were? But this man acted like nothing was wrong. He seemed confident about her words. "You truly are your Father's daughter like _he_ said."

Naruto grimaced. "Who is this _he_ that you keep talking? Who is your partner that wants me so badly? Is it the Akatsuki?"

Sakura frowned at her words, green eyes flickering at her with concern and confusion while Kakashi stared at her. His lone eye showed no emotion but the blonde could feel guilt flowing out of him. _Kakashi-sensei is damn lucky, we are dealing with an insane asshole or else I am going to question him._ Naruto clenched her hands into a tight ball, eyes fixated on the man in front of her.

"You're a smart child, smarter than those citizens in Konoha believe." Naruto flickered her eyes to the clones that she recently created. The clone nodded, silently understanding the message sent between them. A minute. They had a minute until All Might came back to commission. "Tell me who would want you so badly? Who would want to show your skills to the world? Those skills that your village leader refused to develop?"

 _The Third Hokage encouraged me in my skills and he believed in my skills but the old man never refused to develop them. He always had faith in my skills._ She nipped her fingers against her fingers, allowing blood to drop into the ground. She swayed back and forth as Kakashi's eye widened. Her teacher grimaced as if he knew exactly who would wish to encourage her talents. Sakura knitted her eyebrows, looking just as confused as her.

What would this person gain from showing her talents to the world?

The only people she could ask were either Itachi or Jiraiya, they probably had an idea on who could possibly want her.

"You know you shouldn't talk so much," Naruto declared, smiling widely as she slammed her palm around the finally seal. The man tilted his head and took a step forward, only to find himself stuck to the ground. Her lips curled into a tiny smile as All Might launched himself and drilled his fist against the ground. "You should have noticed my clones."

Kakashi curled his lips as he placed his palm upwards, lightening sizzling and cracking. Naruto curled her lips into a grin but her smile faded when the villain stopped struggling. His face seemed to be directed to the west. Taking a deep breath, the girl twisted her head and blue eyes widened when she saw Shigaraki standing there, eyes wide with horror at the sight.

The man tried to rush but he was held back by Twice and a few other villains. For the first time since Naruto met Shigaraki, she recognized the emotions behind this psychotic man. Just like her, he must have had been alone in his life. This villain must have been the first one to recognize him and treated him like he was human. For that, he must have become loyal and saw him as someone precious.

It almost worried her about how similar their emotions were.

"You can't…Sensei! Run!" The man yelled as Kakashi-sensei charged, Chidori on hand.

"You must carry on the fight and the alliance, Tomura."

Those were All For One's last words as Kakashi drove the Chidori through the man's chest. Blood spluttered out of his chest as All Might slugged one last punch against him. Naruto could only stare blankly, her heart felt a heaviness as mist surrounded the horrified villains.

Naruto knew she should feel happy that the villain was defeated and most likely dead but all she could feel was sadness for what just happened.

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 **A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter.**


	51. Chapter 51

**A/N: I would like to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows.**

* * *

' _What are you doing here, child? What happened to you?_ _'_

The words of the Hokage echoed in her ears as the doctors checked on her. The sight of the despair in Shigaraki's eyes haunted her, still lingers whenever she closed her eyes. Were the doctors talking to her? Or was it someone else? Blue eyes faded as Eisuke slammed the hospital door open, green eyes flared with both anger and concern.

"You're safe!"

Eisuke wrapped his arms around her and let out a sigh of relief. He breathed in her scent, nose pressed against her hair and hand rubbing her back. She took in a deep breath, trying to rein in her emotions. The world might be silent, might be in despair for the destruction that happened but she needed to pick herself back up. She exhaled. Life must go on and she must never let her emotions overwhelm her.

"What are you doing here?" Naruto finally asked.

Her cousin let go of her and stared at her, eyebrows raised at her question. She tilted her head, eyes focused on the television screen blaring with life. Headlines announcing All Might retirement grabbed her attention as her teacher stood in front of a couple of reporters. She chewed on her bottom lip. Was it her fault he had to retire? He had been fine during the fight but Naruto did sense he had been exhausted from the fight.

"Why wouldn't I be here? You are my baby cousin." Eisuke took a seat beside her. He removed his sword from his waist, dropped it to the ground and pressed his hands against his forehead. "I came here as soon as I placed your classmate in the police station."

Naruto avoided her cousin's eyes. "You found Bakugou?"

"I found Bakugou with your friend from Konoha." Her cousin leaned closer to her. Green eyes locked on hers, conveying to her about the amount of love and care he had for her. Naruto's throat tightened as it always did whenever someone showed her that they cared for her. "Were you ever going to tell Dad or me that Konoha made contact with you?"

"I thought I can handle it by myself," Naruto admitted. "I was going to tell you and Uncle Kenji but Bakugou's kidnapping happened and I thought my problems could be put in the backburner. Besides Hinata-chan doesn't plan to force me to go back to Konoha…she just wanted to make sure that I am happy and Kiba and Shino follow wth her wish."

"And the two sleeping off in the other room?" Eisuke questioned. "Will they listen to your desire?"

 _I don't know._ Naruto chewed on her bottom lip as the television continued to talk about the impact of All Might's retirement. Three years ago, she would like to think they cared about each other to the point that they wanted each other's happiness. Now she was just uncertain about everything. Her memories and thoughts about Hinata had been true but Sakura and Kakashi? She could never know.

The two of them had in their own ways made it clear she meant less compared to Sasuke.

"You are scared of them." Naruto furiously shook her head but her cousin just frowned, his green eyes not convinced by her actions. "I am going to tell the doctor to keep them away from you until the police question them…"

"I am not scared of Kakashi-sensei and Sakura-chan!"

Eisuke jerked his head at her, eyebrows knitted together at her outburst. Naruto clenched her hands around her blankets, took a couple of deep breaths as her heart pounded against her chest. Her eyes gazed into her cousin's eyes. She prayed her eyes would be enough for him to understand that she was not and would never be scared of her teacher and teammate.

She was just exhausted from the thought of talking to them about everything.

"If you aren't scared of them then why did you avoid my eyes? Why didn't you answer my question? Let me understand what is going through your mind, Naruto." Her cousin pleaded. "I know I didn't grow up like you or Dad. I was lucky to be born and raise here but I just want to be there for you, Naruto. Dad isn't here to knock some sense into you so please talk to me."

"Because I don't know what they plan to do!" She yelled. Eisuke blinked his eyes at the outburst, eyebrows raised at her words. Naruto slumped her shoulders, shoulders hunched back at her words. She took in a deep breath. "Eisuke, my bond with my teacher and teammate is strange. No matter how much bullshit I have to deal with, I still give a shit about them because before I had you and your family…I saw Team Seven as my family."

"You love them despite everything."

Naruto pushed her tongue against her cheek and contemplated Eisuke's words. It would be easy to say she hated them for not thinking about her feelings for just one day. Did she hate how they treated her? Sometimes. Did she see only the bad times with them? No. They ate together, teased each other in their own ways and a part of her adored them.

She loved them and that was why Naruto could never bring herself to throw their team's photo away.

"We have one fucked up bond." Eisuke snorted and the whiskered girl sighed. "I can't even understand it myself. The bond I share with the three of them…it can't be explained with words or anything. Maybe I care about them because I felt like they were one of the first people to try and connect with me or maybe I am a sadist."

Eisuke flickered his eyes to the television. "If they ask you to go back to Konoha without any force, would you do it?"

Naruto shook her head as images of her smiling friends, co-workers and Shouto flashed before her eyes. For the first time in her life, she felt completely happy with herself. Was it so selfish of her to want and stay here? To experience more of this kind of bond.

"Japan is my home now and nothing in the world would change it."

* * *

"Since you are here to watch my baby cousin, I am going to go and get some real food!"

Todoroki could only blink his eyes as Eisuke dashed out of the room with a cheeky smile playing on his lips. The teen shook his head and sat down on the empty brown chair right beside Naruto's bed. If Endeavour hadn't been so busy scolding him for being in the city, he would have been by his friend's side earlier. H"e flickered his eyes to the fruit basket, head tilted when he saw it was from Hinata.

"You came." Naruto pushed herself up, wincing slightly from the force. Todoroki stood up from his seat and helped the girl up into a seat position. She flashed him a smile but he could not bring himself to smile, not when all he could do was remember the scene on television. "Where are the others? Team Eight visited me a few hours ago and well they wanted to stick by my side but they haven't seen Yokohama…so I begged them to go and do some sightseeing for me."

Todoroki pressed his lips into a thin line.

"Kirishima and Bakugou are sleeping," he informed her. "Bakugou's parents are coming to pick him up later in the afternoon with Kirishima's parents."

Naruto smiled. "That's good."

Mismatch eyes stilted at the sight of the smile. Todoroki pulled his chair closer and regarded his friend, his eyes never leaving her own. The smile wavered but not enough for her to show him exactly what was going through her head. He closed his eyes, willing for himself to control his temper. This was not the time to yell at her for not running away when she had the chance.

He knew it was not the time but…

"What the hell were you thinking, Naruto? Why didn't you run away when you had the chance?" He demanded.

Naruto's smile dropped. "I came out fine, didn't I? It isn't a big deal."

"Not a big deal? It looked like the bastard wanted to take you away." Blue eyes widened at his use of coarse language but Todoroki was not going to apologize for his words. Just because he didn't swear like Bakugou doesn't mean he couldn't lose his temper. "You caused an explosion just so you could go and rescue Bakugou! What if that seal messed up, did you ever stop to think about it?"

"You wanted me to just sit there until Hinata tells me that they were going to torture him?" Naruto snarled.

Todoroki took in a deep breath. "I want you to use your head, Naruto! There were a million ways in which you could have done to save him, which didn't involve you causing an explosion! And why didn't you run when you had the chance? Why did you let Bakugou and Inuzaka run? Inuzaka told us that you ordered him to run while you stayed there…"

"I am here and I am safe now." Naruto reassured him. Todoroki chewed the inner corner of his cheek to tell her that they had no idea if she really was safe now. Her teammate and teacher were in the other hospital room, still recovering from their exhaustion from their battle. For all he knew, they might just attempt to talk to her and that was the last thing he wanted to happen for her. "You should just say that you were scared out of your mind for me."

He raised his eyebrow at her.

"Okay it was clear but you should make it even more clear to me," Naruto grumbled, folding her arms against her chest. He shook his head at the girl, mismatch eyes lingered on the whisker marks decorated on her cheeks before travelling to her blue eyes. There were so many emotions flowing through them. Happiness was one of the most prominent emotions in her eyes but there was another emotion he could not make out.

A sense of warmth enveloped him and Todoroki looked away.

"I am fine, Shouto and you don't need to worry about my mental health." Naruto reassured him. She placed her hands on his face and turned it towards her. Blue eyes shone with understanding. Todoroki felt his throat dried when he saw her smile. "I'm not going to close myself off if that is what you are worried about."

 _Has Naruto's hands always been this warm?_ The more time he spend with Naruto, the more he learned interesting things about her. Not only did she have overprotective male guardians, hate vegetables, had an unhealthy obsession with ramen but her hands were so warm.

Naruto's blue eyes grew large and before Todoroki could blink, the girl jerked her hands away, her usual tan cheeks flushed pink. He blinked at the loss of contact, mismatch eyes regarding his friend. Todoroki frowned and tilted his head, eyebrows furrowed as he tried to make sense of what just happened.

"Aren't you going to introduce me to your boyfriend, Naru-chan?"

Todoroki jerked his head away from Naruto, cheeks flushed red as his friend spluttered at the comment. Kakashi let out a laugh from the opposite side of the room, back leaned against the wall and arm folded against his chest. There was no sign of Naruto's other teammate and Todoroki presumed that the girl was still recovering from the fight.

"Shouto isn't my boyfriend, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto grumbled, avoiding his mismatch eyes. The man raised his visible eyebrow at them. His lone eye seized him up as if he was trying to make sense of him or rather like he was judging him for something. Todoroki stared right back at the man, eyes blanked. "And shouldn't you be in bed? You just suffered from chakra exhaustion."

"I want to have a talk with you." Kakashi admitted, his lone eye flickered at him. "Preferably alone."

Todoroki flickered his eyes to Naruto. A large smile was plastered on her face, telling him just how much she did not want to be alone when they talked. He mentally nodded and placed his hand on her shoulder, blue eyes blinked at the action. He stole a glance at her former teacher before looking back at his friend, who smiled at him.

"Whatever you want to say, you can say in front of Shouto." Naruto smiled. "He knows everything about me…even about the Kyuubi."

Kakashi regarded the both of them, lone eye not revealing his emotions about the matter. There was only silence between the three of them, the three of them not losing their eye contact to each other. Kakashi slumped his shoulder, his hand reached for his clutch before limping towards them.

Todoroki stood up from his seat and allowed the man to take a seat beside Naruto.

"Why did you run away, Naruto? I have been trying to understand what have been going through your head for the last three years. Is it because of what Sakura said? Because I have already scolded her about it before the trip."

Naruto pressed her lips into a thin line. "Sakura-chan's words did hurt me…I won't lie but she wasn't the cause. If she had said those words earlier then I would have been able to ignore it and put it down as her being upset at the fact Sasuke was gone. It was the villagers and the way they kept telling me that I should have never came back from the mission. It was the fact that no matter how hard I work and trained myself, I will never be good enough in the eyes of the villagers, of Sakura-chan…and you."

"Naruto, you are my student! Of course I care…"

Todoroki frowned and interjected. "If you cared about her then why did you ignore the fact that Naruto was being abused? She might not have been physically abused but emotional and verbal abuse is just as bad."

"Shouto!"

He raised his eyebrow at her, asking her if she truly wanted him not to remind the man about the hell she went through. Naruto scowled and nodded while Kakashi's eye grew large at his words. He tore his eyes away from them, focusing on the television screen. His lips curled into an even larger scowl when the television announcer discussed about Endeavour being the number one hero.

"At the time I gave Sasuke more priority because I thought his trauma was even worse," Kakashi admitted. "You were always so good in fooling people to thinking that you were fine or maybe I wanted to believe you were fine…but Sasuke was always a flight risk. The Hokage made it clear to me that I need to keep an eye on him and guide him to the right path. You never showed any signs that you would betray the village and even now I don't think you can betray the village. This is no excuse Naruto but that was my reasoning at the time."

Naruto pressed her lips into a thin line. "I might be angry for the village for their treatment but I never blamed you for focusing on him unlike a certain somebody."

"It needed to be said."

Kakashi regarded the pair of them, his lone eye almost seemed to be in another place. The man shook his head, eye fixated on him as if he was looking at him for the first time. Todoroki squirmed under the lone eye which seemed to stare at him with both understanding and amusement. This man had no clue about the platonic nature of their relationship.

"Naruto, I really did care about you but I thought you needed some tough love." Naruto avoided her teacher's eyes while Todoroki rubbed Naruto's shoulder, eyes still focused on the man. "When you became a kunoichi, you were very rough around the edges and you did things a shinobi should never do."

"You scolded me for worrying about Sasuke during the Chunin Exams." Naruto's voice held no bitterness nor anger. Tiredness was the only emotion that seemed to seep out of her voice. She leaned her head against his right hand, telling Todoroki that she was trying to find comfort from his fire side. "You left me to be trained by that closet pervert."

Kakashi grimaced. "Your basics were terrible at the time, Naruto. Ebisu was the best person…"

"You didn't even have faith that I might win against Neji!" Todoroki tightened his grip on the girl and Naruto jerked her head at him. He gestured for her to take deep breaths and the blonde did as he suggested. He grimaced when his friend curled her lips into a tight smile. "I mean if you did then you would have trained me as well or found someone better. If Sasuke lost and I won the match against Neji…how would have I defended myself? He could have killed me! I was lucky Ero-Sennin was in the area!"

Kakashi didn't say anything but Todoroki could only stare at him. Was the man so focused on one student that he would disregard the other? His throat tightened as images of his friend's corpse came to his mind. He loosened his grip on Naruto, clicked his feet together and narrowed his eyes at the man that Naruto still care for.

"Sasuke might have witness his whole family being murdered but Naruto went through abuse throughout her life," Todoroki informed the man. He ignored the tugging of his sleeve from his friend, mismatch eyes focused on the man right in front of him. "In no way are their trauma similar but she needed you just as much as Sasuke needed you. The villagers ignored her, called her names and refused her the right to live…wouldn't it have been your job to comfort her? To tell her that she was more than those words. Was it so hard for you to care for her? Because it is easy…she makes it easy."

He focused his eyes on Naruto, ignoring the contemplating look from her teacher. Blue eyes blew up wide at his words and she chewed on her lips as if she didn't know what to make sense of his words or actions. Why did she seem surprise by his actions? Didn't she defend him from his shitty old man? It was only fair he did the same for her.

When she had been dealing with her own shit, Naruto took the time out to defend him from his old man. Instead of focusing on her own match, his friend comforted him. Even though there had been days when she struggled with her emotions and health, Naruto went out of her way to spend time with him. Despite all her claims for not liking Bakugou's behaviour, she still went out of her way to save him. She even avoided telling their classmates because she wanted them safe and sound.

Naruto would do everything in her power to protect the people around her.

Didn't her teacher know this? Was it so hard for her teacher to love her?

' _It is so easy to love Naru-chan, don't you think?'_

Mismatch eyes widened and he jerked his head at Naruto, who stared wide eye at him.

Images of their interaction flooded before his eyes as his brain processed what he was about to say to her teacher. The small smile when he gave her the plush fox toy was one of the most prominent images in his brain. The laugh she always made whenever he didn't get a joke. The slight crinkle in her nose whenever someone tried to make her eat vegetables. The way she flushed red whenever he made a comment about her appearance.

He could only come to one conclusion about the question posed by Hianta.

' _Yes.'_

His eyes took in the smile of his friend, allowing him to burn it in his memory.

 _She makes it easy to love her._

* * *

 **A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter.**


	52. Chapter 52

A/N: I would like to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows as well as reviewing the chapter.

* * *

"Why didn't you tell me about Konoha?"

The birds chirped from the outside world. Kenji folded his arms against his chair, his hat pressed down as Kumiko peeled an apple. The television blared with life, announcers discussing about the outcome of All Might's announcement of his retirement. Eisuke leaned against the wall, arms folded against his chest and green eyes fixed on her.

Blue eyes winced at the harshness of his tone. The tiredness and frustration made Naruto feel slightly guilty for not telling her family members about her plans to help her classmate escape. She stole a glace to the other side of her bed where Todoroki sat right beside her. He pressed his lips into a thin line, looking almost uncertain on how to defend her from her irritated Uncle.

"Because she thought she could handle it by herself." Eisuke called out. His green eyes were completely blank despite the annoyance and frustration coming out from his tone.

Todoroki raised his eyebrow at her, mismatch eyes asking her if she truly thought she could handle it by herself, while Kenji pressed his lips into a thin line. The red-haired man stared at her like he didn't know what to do, which made the girl look at her hands. It sounded so wrong when her cousin said it in that way but Naruto really did think she had it under control.

Kenji took in deep breaths. "At any point did you think I wouldn't give a shit about this? Didn't I tell you that we protect our own? If it wasn't for Eisuke then I would never know about this."

Kumiko handed a slice of apple to Kenji, green eyes warning her husband about his choice of words. Naruto nibbled a small piece of apple while she leaned her head against Todoroki's left side. She knew he cared about it but Naruto doesn't want him to tear her teammate and teacher apart. It was bad enough Todoroki scolded Kakashi-sensei for his behaviour towards her, not that Naruto wasn't happy about it.

It still made her smile to know Shouto went that far for her.

"I thought I could do it by myself," Naruto closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. Breath in and out, clear her mind from everything as her therapist suggested to her in the second session. She opened her eyes. "I thought that I was more than capable of dealing this by myself."

"You can't take care of it when they remind you of those bad days," Shouto said quietly, bicoloured eyes focused on her face. Naruto chewed on her bottom lip, blue eyes darting from her family members to the boy that she might possibly love. "But it was clear to me that you can't handle them by yourself."

"What did they do to her, Pretty Boy?"

Todoroki didn't seem one bit fazed at the nickname given by Kenji, his mismatch eyes blanked as he tilted his head at the older man. Bicoloured eyes flickered to her, almost like he was asking her permission to tell him about the truth of what happened. Something about her expression must have indicated her feelings because Todoroki nodded.

"Kakashi asks her to explain why she run away from Konoha and he tried to tell her that he gave a crap about her." Kenji's hazel eyes flared with anger. The man crushed the apple with his fist, splattering it to the ground. The man jumped up, ready to charge towards the other room—only to be held back by a water whip.

Kumiko tightened her grip on the whip, green eyes flared with fury. "This isn't the time for you to go and yell at the man for his actions."

"Kumiko, let me go."

"I actually would like to see Dad tear him…"

Kumiko swirled her head at the two males, green eyes burned with so much fury that Naruto wondered if the woman had a fire Quirk instead of a water Quirk. Those green eyes promised to make their lives hell if the two Uzumaki planned to make life difficult for her teacher and teammate. Kumiko tightened her grip on the whip.

"We are all angry for what happened but we are in a hospital," Kumiko said calmly, eyes fixed on her struggling son. "If you yelled or even try to kill them then it will make the problem worse, not better."

"I don't give a shit! Over my dead body will I allow Naruto to keep contact with those people."

Naruto jerked her head at her furious uncle, blue eyes growing large at the sincerity over those words. Her throat tightened and there was a burning sensation behind her eyes as her brain continued to process what her uncle just admitted.

Todoroki wordlessly handed her a tissue, mismatch eyes telling her that it was okay to cry. Her lips twitched and Naruto took the tissue, wiping her eyes and taking deep breaths to calm down her emotions. Eisuke eyed them, green eyes flashed with curiosity at the exchange. He tilted his head and raised an eyebrow at her but Naruto just tore her eyes away, uncertain on how to answer his question.

"Do we tell the police about this?" Todoroki questioned.

Naruto furiously shook her head. "I don't want any authorities involved! They aren't criminals and even though I refuse to believe Kakashi-sensei's bullshit…it doesn't mean they are criminals."

"They will become criminals if they take you away by force or by guilting you to go back…unless you want to go back," Todoroki pointed out. His mismatch eyes flashed with discomfort at the thought as if he didn't like the thought of her going back to Konoha.

Naruto blinked and shook her head, fixing her eyes on her dearest friend. _Three years ago, I might have been happy to know that they want to take me back and I would have gone back willingly._ Now she had family members, friends and Todoroki. They could understand, couldn't they? She might have the Konoha headband but there was nothing really tying her there.

She might have had Team Seven and Hinata but she had more bonds here.

"I am not going anywhere."

* * *

"So you are the bastard that failed my niece."

Kakashi blinked as a red-haired man strolled into the room, hazel eyes blazing with anger as he took a seat right beside him. Sakura darted her eyes from him to the man right beside him, looking confused at this niece that the man was talking about. He focused his attention on the long scar on the man's face. There was something about this man that reminded him of someone but Kakashi couldn't remember.

"Sir, I don't think Kakashi-sensei know your niece."

"Naruto didn't tell you, did she?" Kakashi's eyes grew large while Sakura jerked her head. The red-haired man nodded, looking almost unsurprised about the comment. "I am Uzumaki Kenji and Naruto is my niece. I was actually planning to murder you but Kumiko reminded me that it is a terrible idea and I don't think my son is capable of pulling me out for murder."

"Niece but how? Naruto doesn't have any family members! Everyone knows in Konoha that she has no family…"

Kenji nodded. "She has no family in Konoha but she has family _here_. Naruto might not have the stereotypical looks of an Uzumaki but she has her mother's face and her eye shape."

 _He knows Kushina-neechan._ Kakashi tilted his head down while Sakura stared at Kenji, green eyes trying to find some form of resemblance between Naruto and this man. He felt ashamed for the behaviour he showed Naruto even though some of the things were out of his hand. Naruto didn't seem like she wanted to listen or understand his reasons.

He doubt he could explain himself when that boy was around her.

"I want to fucking hurt you but Naruto still gives a shit about the two of you." Kakashi blinked and jerked his head at the scowling red-haired man. Sakura looked at the man with hope but there was no smile playing on the man's lips, just pure frustration and anger. "That Pretty Boy said you tried to tell her that you give a shit about her and Naruto admitted she had an outburst."

Kakashi pressed his lips as yesterday's events played before his eyes. The anger and hurt in Naruto's eyes still haunted him even now. The words spoken by her boyfriend (the kid had to be her boyfriend with how he stared at her) echoed in his ears. It never occurred to him that it had been abuse. His life had also been difficult but he handled it okay.

Had it been so hard for him to think Naruto was capable of handling it?

"I thought Naruto needed tough love and I presumed she understood why I had to teach Sasuke."

Sakura's eyes flashed with confusion at the words, green eyes questioned him about what happened. Kakashi ignored the silent question and stared at Kushina's relaive. The man's hazel eyes searched him as if trying to see if there were any lies behind his words. The man nipped his finger, blood dripping as he placed it on the palm of his hand.

Rum appeared out of his hand and the man took one huge gulp of it.

"I usually try to avoid drinking rum but I think this calls for it. My wife fucking hates it but well I can't deal with this emotional crap while sober," Kenji admitted. Kakahi nodded. It was a coping mechanism for the man just like the Icha-Icha books were a mechanism for him. "Explain to me what the hell did you do to screw things up?"

"You don't plan to punch me or give me a good scolding match?"

That was what Kushina would have done to him.

Kenji snorted. "I want to yell at you but my wife doesn't know that I am here to belittle the pair of you. If I raise my voice then not only will we have the doctors rushing in here but I have a furious wife to deal with. Do you have any fucking idea how bad life can be when your wife is unhappy?"

Kakashi shook his head while Sakura tilted her head, green eyes flashed with curiosity of the kind of people that Naruto surrounded herself with.

"I focused more on training Sasuke because I was the only one capable of training him with the Sharingan," Kakashi explained. He lifted the headband, Obito's red eye spinning to life. "I have very little patience when it came to Naruto. How can I keep myself calm when she has so many things to be corrected? So during the Chunin Exams, I gave her to someone that had enough patience to deal with her."

"I don't even have patience when it comes to teaching my own kids about seals." Kenji admitted, lips curled into a frown. Kakashi relaxed his shoulders, the wrinkles of his forehead smoothed when he realized the man could be reasoned with. "But why does Naruto seem to think you don't care for her? What did you do?"

"There was a dangerous, psychotic nin in the Chunnin Exams and there was a possibility that Naruto might battle him in one of her matches." Kakashi admitted. Kenji's eyes flashed with understanding while Sakura grimaced, no doubt remembering how terrifying the Kazekage was at the time. His pink-haired student's green eyes grew large as if realizing who else would have been in danger if the matches had carried on like usual.

Kenji took another swing of his alcohol. "Why didn't you train her? You better have a good reason, you little shit or I might just throw this bottle at you."

 _He really does have a temper._ Kakashi sweated while Sakura inched away from the man. He stared at the man's hazel eyes, words swirled around his head as he tried to articulate about why he only wanted Naruto to learn the basics. He didn't have the time to defend himself yesterday. That friend of Naruto made it clear to him about how much he blamed him for the pain Naruto went through.

He doubted that the boy was not actually Naruto's boyfriend, the two seemed too comfortable for them not to be dating.

"Well?"

"Naruto might have been terrible when it came to her basics but she is brilliant when it comes to planning, strategies and being creative," Kakashi explained. "Unlike Sasuke or Sakura, Naruto has shown me time in and time out that she can make creative plans and uses her jutsu to the best of her capability."

Kakashi never emphasised this to his student. He never explained it to her because he always presumed Naruto knew this. He always presumed when it came to the members of his team. He presumed Sasuke had chosen to walk the path of comradeship, not once did he actually stop to think his student would do it. He never bonded with them than what was more than necessary—he never felt comfortable in doing this.

"Do you know what Naruto's problem is?" Kenji asked him. "Words aren't enough with her and actions that contradict what you think makes her think that you don't have faith in her. It makes her think that no one gives a crap about her. Most people don't understand that being a shinobi means that we guard our emotions, that we try and not tell people that we care…but Naruto doesn't fully understand that. Her friends here also doesn't understand it."

Kakashi flickered his eyes to the window, uncertain on how to feel about the man. A couple of minutes ago, he wanted to murder him and now the man was trying to explain his own student to him. He really did mess up when it came to Naruto if a stranger had to explain everything to him.

"What do you mean? Why wouldn't Naruto understand?" Sakura questioned.

Kenji took another gulp of his drink. "You have parents, don't you? They must have told you that they love you and gave you hugs and all that shit right? Naruto never had that. My niece is starved for attention and doesn't know the different forms of affection. She knows when someone hates her or if someone is angry but she doesn't understand the subtle ways a person can show their care."

Kakashi could only keep quiet.

"If you really want Naruto to know that you always care about her then show it to her, don't use words." Kenji paused. "I'm telling you this because Naruto cares about you. I want to tear you limb to limb for what happened to her, for the abuse she went through but we are all products of a fucked-up system. It is not your fault that you have no fucking clue how to show her that you give a shit bout her."

The man stood up from the chair, made his way to the door and then twisted his body around to look at them.

"But let me make one thing clear to you: make Naruto cry or even try and force her back to Konoha then the whole Uzumaki Clan will declare war on Konoha. We protect our own."

It was a promise.

* * *

"Can we talk Naruto?"

Naruto plastered a smile on her face at the sight of her pink-haired teammate and Kakashi-sensei standing right in front of her. She stole a glance at the clock on the wall, telling her that Todoroki would be back in the next ten minutes. Her friend had never left her side for the past day, hovering over her like she needed to be protected. It made her smile but she was capable of dealing with everything.

"You are going to try and convince me to come back to Konoha."

Sakura faltered while Kakashi took a seat beside her, his lone eye fixated on her. He leaned towards her, looking almost distinctly uncomfortable at the level of closeness between them. Blue eyes widened when the man handed her a cup of instant ramen noodles, not just any instant noodles but her favourite flavour: miso.

"You remembered."

Kakashi nodded. "You used to leave them scattered in your apartment's floor."

 _I did, didn't I?_ She fingered the logo of the ramen cup, lips pressed into a tiny smile as she recalled the way Kakashi used to try and convince her to eat her vegetables. She always presumed her teacher never bothered to realize what her favourite ramen flavour was. It always seemed like he didn't really care about what she liked and disliked since he always seemed to be too busy training Sasuke on how to use the Sharingan properly.

"Naruto, do you truly believe I never cared about you?"

"Is this about yesterday?" Naruto sighed and put the ramen cup on the bedside table, alongside the peeled apples. "Shouto was being overprotective about me."

"You thought I didn't have faith in your abilities," Kakashi reminded her.

The smile on her face faltered at the reminder. It had been silly of her to hold it against him when Naruto considered the fact Kakashi had to increase the chances of Sasuke's survival. The man did attempt to teach her the Chidori even though she showed she had no talent for it. It had been so silly of her to say it but it just bursted out of her mouth before she could even stop herself.

"I didn't mean…"

Kakashi shook his head. "I always had faith in your abilities. Out of everyone in Team Seven, you showed that you were the most creative one. Your strategies has shown me even with the most basic jutsu that you can defeat people. I just thought that you understood this because you always have so much self-confidence."

"I was always so good with fooling people, wasn't I?" Naruto handed them the bowl of apples, lips curled into a smile as her teacher and teammate took the apple. "I even fooled myself about a lot of things. I fooled myself into thinking that I can continue to pretend to be happy and that those words didn't affect me when I clearly couldn't handle. I fooled myself into thinking Sasuke loved me like a sister but he loved me."

"You finally realize," Sakura pressed her lips into a thin line. "You really didn't know did you?"

Naruto stared at her. "I never lied to you or those fangirls when I said I never liked him in that way. I love Sasuke like a brother, I always did even if I did a terrible job of showing it."

"Sasuke-kun wasn't very good in showing his emotions to you," Sakura chewed on her bottom lip. "I noticed because…"

"Because you wanted to understand him better and because you want to know him better," Naruto finished. Sakura's green eyes grew large as Naruto took a bite of the apple, lips curled into a tiny smile. She thought of Todoroki and how she tried her hardest to be there for him. Along the way, she came to realize what made him happy, what he loved and even what he disliked.

"Naruto, I'm sorry."

Naruto pressed her lips into a thin line. "What are you sorry for?"

"Everything," Sakura clenched her hands into a fist. "I am sorry for taking out my anger on you whenever Sasuke showed that he likes you better than me. It wasn't right. I am sorry for bullying you and calling you all those words, for making you act like an idiot because I thought Sasuke deserve it more than you. I am sorry for calling you useless."

The sincerity in her tone made Naruto faltered, uncertain on how to deal with the apology. She never thought Sakura would apologize; not when her teammate never apologized for her behaviour before. Her teammate always clung to Sasuke, always belittle her in some way but Naruto knew she cared in her own way. When her period came, it had been Sakura to explain it to her since they had been in a mission.

"Sakura-chan…"

"I called you useless that day because I thought out of everyone, Sasuke would listen to you." Sakura took a deep breath. "Out of everyone in Rookie Nine, I was the most useless one. I begged Tsunade to take me in as a student because I wanted to stand beside you and Sasuke."

"We are crap in telling our feelings, aren't we?"

Sakura nodded and Naruto stared at her team, uncertain about what to say. Could she tell them about her decision to stay here? Was it the right time? Or would they force her to come back? She nibbled her apple piece, blue eyes fixated on her teammate and teacher. It felt almost uncomfortable to be here, should she babble? Why did her babbling only came out around Shouto?

"What are they doing here?"

She jerked her head at Todoroki who stood outside the door. A can of ice tea in one hand, his eyebrows knitted and his mismatch eyes stilted at the sight of her teammate and teacher. Blue eyes narrowed, daring him to cause problems for them. Todoroki pressed his lips into a thin line, strolled towards her and handed her the drink.

"Sakura-chan and Kakashi-sensei just wanted to talk."

Todoroki pressed his lips into a thin line, eyes asking her if she truly was okay with this. Naruto smiled. Just one word from her and her friend would be willing to freeze them in their place. His eyes lingered on her face as if telling her that he was here for her.

She smiled and stared at her teammate and teacher.

"I want to talk to Kakashi-sensei in private."

* * *

"You love Naruto."

Todoroki tore his eyes from the phone and stared at the pink-haired girl that stood right beside him. Sakura flickered her eyes from the phone to Naruto, who seemed busy chatting with Kakashi. A small smile played on her lips as her teacher talked to her. Todoroki wished he knew what they were talking about, uncertain whether the man was trying to convince Naruto to go back.

"Does she know about your feelings?"

Todoroki paused and shook his head, mismatch eyes fixed on the beaming face of his friend. How could he tell her? Did he just go up to her and tell her? How could he be certain Naruto loves him back? It would be easy for him to think she returned his feelings but he might be wrong. It was not like he had much experience in this department.

He could ask Midoriya but the boy seemed to be just as clueless as him when it came to girls.

"Naruto doesn't know if someone likes her unless someone makes it obvious to her," Sakura commented. Todoroki tilted his head and regarded the girl. Her green eyes seemed fixated on Naruto, her lips pressed into a tiny bitter smile. "Sasuke-kun wasn't very obvious when it came to his feelings towards Naruto but all the girls can see that he likes her. Naruto just didn't know…we thought she was lying about it."

"She broke down when Yaoyorozu pointed out that Sasuke looks at her like he had a crush." Sakura's green eyes grew large at his words. Todoroki pressed his lips into a thin line. "She felt like an idiot for not realizing it but it isn't her fault."

Sakura sighed. "Did she tell you that I accused her of liking him?"

Todoroki nodded, mismatch eyes not revealing about the anger he felt for her actions. Naruto was furious with him for his behaviour towards her teacher even though he still felt like it had bee the right thing to do. If he broke this girl down then his friend would never talk to him. Despite everything they did, she still held no anger towards them.

"I thought the way she acted around him was just another way for her to get his attention…it is stupid, I know but Sasuke was my first crush and my first love." Todoroki made no comment and the girl continued. "I never stopped to think that maybe Naruto was just being Naruto."

"She doesn't hate you even though you bullied her." Todoroki commented, eyes fixed on his friend. "She keeps defending your actions and said that you only said those cruel words because you were in pain. She thinks your love for Sasuke is genuine, but how can you love him? From how Naruto describe him…he is a terrible person."

"He wasn't always terrible."

 _I know._ Naruto was a lot of things but she admitted to him that Sasuke had been willing to sacrifice himself for her. Could a person be completely terrible if they wanted to do this? It might have been his love for Naruto that caused him to do it but Todoroki guessed there was a part of him that truly cared for the people around him. There was something about Sasuke that made Naruto continue to care for him even after all he had done.

Todoroki just wanted to meet the boy and understand what that thing was.

"Does Naruto hate him? I can't blame her if she is angry with him since he…"

"You know what is the most interesting thing about Naruto? You could do the most shittiest thing to her and she will forgive you," Todoroki's eyes softened, remembering how his friend comforted him. "She will just try and comfort the person instead of mining her own business even when she has her own shit to deal with. No matter what your teammate did to her, Naruto will try and find a way to save him."

Sakura stared at him. "You don't like it."

Todoroki pressed his lips into a thin line and nodded. He didn't practically enjoy knowing that his friend still carried some lingering guilt for what happened but Naruto was stubborn. Even if he did try and talk her out of it then Naruto would just ignore his words. It was something he loved about Naruto and at the same time he hated how his friend never think things through.

"If you are worried that I will try and convince her not to bring him back then don't worry." Todoroki focused his eyes on Naruto. "I only want her to be happy and I will follow through with her wishes."

"You really should show her that you love her," Sakura repeated.

Todoroki raised his eyebrow. "Are you saying this because you want Sasuke all to yourself?"

"I am willing to fight for Sasuke fairly if that is what you are accusing me of," Sakura stared at Naruto and pressed her lips into a bitter smile. "Maybe three years ago, that would have been my motive but I haven't been the best teammate to Naruto or even friend. I made her promise to bring Sasuke for my happiness but neither Sasuke-kun nor I did anything to make her happy."

Todoroki raised his eyebrows. "And what makes you believe my feelings would make her happy?"

He had no problem in telling Naruto about his feelings but Todoroki was going to do it right. This was not something that could be done lightly. When it came to his friend, he needed to make it obvious to her that he loves her.

Todoroki wanted her to know that his feelings weren't light at all.

He would even go out of his comfort zone if he had to.

* * *

 **A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter.**


	53. Chapter 53

A/N: I want to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows

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"You are finally back!"

Naruto grinned as Kiko and Akane tackled her to the ground, their eyes gleaming with relief at the sight of her walking straight. She hugged them tightly, eyes closed as she breathed in their scent. Kenji and Kumiko glanced at each other, heads shaking at their daughters' antics while Eisuke strolled in and hand-chopped the girls on their heads.

"Ouch!"

"What was that for, Eisuke!" Akane yelled. She released Naruto from the hug and turned to her smiling brother. Hazel eyes narrowed at the smiling hero, who just shrugged his shoulders and strolled towards the kitchen. The girl turned to her younger sister as if she had an explanation for their brother's strange behaviour.

"Greet us too, brat!" Eisuke called out from the kitchen. Kenji and Kumiko shook their heads, eyes twinkling with mirth at the comment. Naruto made her way to the living room, taking a seat on the blue couch. Her relatives followed suit with Kenji grabbing the remote from the coffee table, turning on the television. Music blasted out from the television screen, the colourful costumes of the celebrities brought a smile from everyone.

"Anything interesting happened?" Kumiko questioned the girls.

Kiko and Akane flickered their eyes at each other, nodding their head as if agreeing to do something. Kiko slid towards the coffee table, pulling out an opened envelop from the drawer. She handed the notice to Kenji, green eyes avoiding her father's searching eyes. Akane avoided her mother's raised eyebrows, knowing that the woman was furious for being a busybody.

Kenji pressed his lips into a thin line and handed the letter to Kumiko. His green eyes didn't reveal his emotions nor could Naruto feel the emotions coming out from the man. She glanced at her cousins who avoided her blue eyes as if the notice was going to annoy her. Kumiko sighed, placed the notice on the coffee table.

"Your teachers are going to come today to talk to us about you staying in their dorms as a way to protect you and the other students." Kumiko informed her, hands folded on her knees. She seemed calm and poised, green eyes seemed completely blank and cold as if she was trying to process the information. The woman flickered her eyes to the living room, eyes narrowed at the sight of the lingering mess in the living room.

"If the two of you read the notice then why didn't you clean the living room? Go and clean your mess!" Kenji declared, jerking his fingers to the stains on the floor. Kiko swirled her head to her sister, lips curled into a triumph smile while Akane groaned, lips pressed into a pout. The girls made their way to the closet, pulling out the cleaning supplies. "Honestly we left the two of you alone for just three days and you can't even clean up after yourselves! If you even use your clones then I will know!"

Kumiko and Akane winced, knelt down and began to clean the floors. Eisuke took a sip of his tea, green eyes twinkling with joy at the sight. Naruto just shook her head, lips pressed into a smile. She tilted her head when she felt her phone vibrated against her pants pocket.

She tilted her head when she saw that the message was from Shouto.

 _Got any plans for tonight?_

 _Nope._ Naruto chewed on her bottom lip as she sent the text to him. Why was he asking about her plans? Sakura and Kakashi were staying in a hotel, no doubt waiting for tomorrow where she would tell them about the story of Sasuke and Itachi. Oh right. She still needed to get into contact with her friend's brother to tell him about her final decision.

She chewed on her bottom lip, staring at her contacts that had Itachi's temporary phone number. Her fingers hovered, uncertain whether to type out the message that she had came to a decision. It was Itachi's job to bring him back and to reason with him. Her words and actions couldn't get through him and neither did Sakura's words. Her friend followed the words spoken by Itachi, which meant he had the best chance of getting through to him about his insanity.

 _Can you meet me at the beach tonight?_

Blue eyes grew large at those words and she just stared at the phone. Taking a deep breath, Naruto rubbed her eyes again and again, trying to see if her eyes were playing tricks on her. She even pinched herself, earning strange looks from her family members. In all her time with Shouto, not once had he ever ask her to go to the beach.

 _Was something up?_

The doorbell rang and Naruto stuffed her phone in her pockets as Kenji strolled towards the entrance. Kiko and Akane scrubbed even harder, their faces drenching in sweat. Kumiko sat up straight, head locked on the clock on the wall while Eisuke made his way to the kitchen to bring out the drinks for their guests to drink. Should she go and help him? It was rude but her brain seemed to be in a lock-down mode from the strange message.

"I believe that all of you have been informed in advance about the U.A High School boarding policy," Aizawa-sensei announced as All-Might and him walked into the living room. His red eyes lingered on her, almost looking as if he was uncertain on whether to yell at her or to be glad she was safe. "And I wish to discuss about the consequence of Uzumaki's actions for the night of Bakugou's rescue."

"If you want to yell at her for being a reckless idiot then go ahead," Kenji flickered his eyes towards Naruto. "I have already scolded her for not informing me about Konoha."

"It was clear from the television that there were two other ninjas after Uzumaki,"Aizawa stared at her. "Are you okay?"

Naruto nodded. "I think I have got Kakashi-sensei and Sakura-chan handled."

"If this is the case then do you have their contacts? I want to have a talk with your former teacher about what he taught you." Aizawa informed her as he took a seat on the chairs opposite her relatives. His dark eyes did not reveal his emotions but Naruto could guess he felt frustrated about the lack of information as well as her recklessness.

Naruto pressed her lips into a thin line. "Are you going to question them?"

"As of right now no, the authorities aren't involved since they did help All Might to defeat the Villain," Aizawa informed her. Naruto relaxed her shoulders, letting out a sigh of relief while Kenji just took a sip of his own tea. The blonde grabbed one of the pieces of paper, took the pen lying on the coffee table and scribbled down the address that Hinata and the others had been staying in.

"If we were to bring them in for questioning then the media will paint everything out in a bad light. So they should consider themselves lucky…it is a conversation between one teacher to the next." Aizawa continued, nodding when Naruto slid the piece of paper to him. He pocketed inside his jacket's pocket and looked at them. "It is only for this reason that they aren't being brought in for questioning, normally we questioned them."

"If you plan to yell at Kakashi then don't bother," Kenji interjected. Naruto swirled her head at her uncle, blue eyes growing wide at how calm the man was. In the hospital, he looked like he wanted to murder her teacher and now he seemed utterly calm. "He knows that he screwed up with Naruto and the guilt is eating him alive. The man has problems expressing his emotions just like most ninjas."

"That wasn't my intention but I will take this into consideration when I have my discussion with him," Aizawa shook his head when Eisuke offered him some orange juice. All Might nodded and took his own glass from the hero. "But let us discuss about the dorms as you must know, we plan to relocate all of the students into the dorms as a way to protect them. If you have any doubts…"

"I don't have any doubts and I'm certain that the same could be said for Kumiko," Kenji took a deep breath and drank his tea. His wife nodded, offering the two gentleman a smile. "Yes, the injuries that some of the students sustained were bad but it is clear that you care about the students. What happened in the training camp might not show it but the school had taken steps in dealing with Naruto's mental health."

Her teachers blinked their eyes while Kenji stared at her.

"It pleased my husband to know that you know the true strength of Naruto," Kumiko informed them. Green eyes shown with so much warmth that Naruto felt her throat tightened. "She might not have been in her best state here but from what Kenji told me, she could have been a lot worse. Instead of accepting the self-fulfilling prophecy set by the people of her village, she chose to walk a different path. It isn't something a lot of people can do but it shows just how strong and determined Naruto is."

Naruto blinked when her aunt and uncle bowed their heads.

"I hope that you will continue to help this little Maelstorm become the best hero and person that she can be and continue to believe in her like you have always done."

* * *

 _Why did Shouto asked me to come here in the middle of the night?_

Naruto scratched the back of her neck as the sand dug through her sandals. The moon loomed over her, shinning down like in those romantic movies Kiko loved to watch. Her lips twitched at the sight of a few of the couples strolling in front of them, hands clasped together and Naruto's eyes softened. She might not be a romantic at heart but love was something precious if you asked her.

The sight of seeing someone receiving so much love made her want to smile.

She blinked her eyes when she saw a note lying on the sand. Tilting her head, Naruto picked up the note and felt her lips twitched when the notes told her to follow the path of papers. If it had been anyone else, she would ignore the note but the blunt, neat handwriting told her it was Shouto. What the hell was her friend planning? He never did something like this before.

Her lips twitched into a large smile when she saw Todoroki standing there with an orange tulip in hand. _What is he doing?_ She flickered her eyes from the sunflowers to him and then back to the beautiful rose in his hand. Blue eyes widened when he handed her the flower.

"You brought me a tulip?" Naruto smelled the flower, lips curling into a smile at the gesture. Had she ever told him that she like tulips? Sure there had been that one time when she stopped at the flower store to smell them but it had been so long ago. How could he remember something as small as this? Her friend nodded. "Why?"

"You like them, don't you?" Todoroki scrunched his eyebrows together, looking almost put out by her question. He avoided her eyes but the slight pinkness in his cheeks told her that he almost felt embarrassed by the action.

Naruto's eyes grew large as she stared down at the tulip. Her lips curled into a large smile and she bobbed her head before placing the flower in her ear. She tucked the other strand of hair, cheeks slightly burning at her friend's good memory. Her cheeks felt like they were being roasted when her friend stared at her, mismatch eyes lingering on her pink cheeks.

"I don't think I ever told you that I like them."

Todoroki nodded. "You always seem to stop whenever there was a tulip in the gardens or in the flower shop near the train station. I just presumed that it means you like them."

"For a moment there, I thought you asked Hinata about my favourite flowers or even Itsuka-chan." Todoroki pressed his lips and shook his head, mismatch eyes not revealing about his emotions towards her words. He stared at her blue eyes and for the first time since Naruto met him, her friend's eyes shone with an emotion that she hoped was real.

There was no way it would happened.

She would recognized if he liked her back, wouldn't she?

The two of them stopped walking when they reached to the further end of the beach, where a red picnic blanket laid on the ground with a basket waiting for them. Naruto tilted her head, eyebrows scrunched together in confusion at the sight of the blanket. She turned her head to tell Todoroki that they needed to go somewhere else because this place seemed to be taken.

Blue eyes grew large when the boy took a seat on the blanket. _What the hell is happening here?_ Naruto slowly took a seat on the blanket, eyebrows scrunched together as she tried to piece together the actions. This felt less like a get-together for friends and more like a date, which was wrong. She would know if her friend asked her out for a date, wouldn't she? She would have gotten a warning, wouldn't she?

' _Naruto you got a date don't you? That's why you are abandoning us in the middle of the night!'_

Akane's words echoed in her ears as Todoroki stood up. Her friend began pacing back and forth like he was debating to do something. When was her friend ever fluster about anything? She chewed on her bottom lip, trying to make sense of this strange behaviour. Was he trying to test her on how to confess his feelings for his actual crush?

 _That doesn't sound like Shouto, he would tell me about his crush and then ask my permission to use me as practice._

Where was Hinata when she needed her? Everything seemed to be strange. Todoroki gave her the flowers she clearly loved, which made no sense since she only stopped for them a few times. The picnic basket and the blankets were sweet, almost reminding her of Todoroki. Despite his rough beginnings, her friend had shown her time in and time out that he was sweet.

"Shouto, is everything…"

Her words died off when Todoroki turned towards her, his hands running through his hair. Blue eyes grew large at the sight of the younger boy knelt down on one knee. She twirled her head around, trying to see if this was her friend's idea of a sick joke. There were no other people around, just the two of them.

She couldn't sense any of her friends' chakra signature and she definitely couldn't hear any signs that people were watching them.

"What are you doing, Shouto?"

"I don't really know how to do this," Todoroki admitted. "I tried researching about this but it hasn't been much help. I thought of going to Midoriya but he seems to be just as clueless as me when it comes to this kind of thing. My brother wasn't much help since we were never close and going to my sister for advice felt weird…so I asked Bakugou."

Naruto felt her throat tightened as her mind began to connect the dots of what was happening.

"He seems like he knows this kind of thing." Naruto chewed on her bottom lip as the boy stared at her. "But it turns out he wasn't much help too. So I tried reading some of those mangas my sister used to like to read and this is where the idea come from."

Naruto took a deep breath and tried to calm down her racing heart. "Shouto, what are you trying to do? Because it seems like…"

"When I first met you, I thought you reminded me of my mother with the way you act," Todoroki continued. "So I tried to help you because I know how difficult it can be to open up to people and then USJ happened…and I was worried out of my mind. I know I shouldn't have reminded you that you could have died but it was so reckless of you to be willing to throw your life away."

"You know now that it is different."

Todoroki nodded. "I know but I just have to tell you this. When things went to hell for me in the Sports Festival, you tried to comfort me and tell me that I'm not like my Shitty Old Man. I know you were dealing with your own shit but you still took the time to comfort me and make me feel better about myself."

Blue eyes grew large as her mind swirled with information about what her friend was telling her. _This almost sounds like he is confessing to me but he couldn't possibly be._ Her throat tightened as her friend stared at her with those earnest eyes that she grew to love.

"I think that was when it all started for me," Todoroki continued. "I always thought that you were pretty but I never really consider how beautiful you were when it came to your personality. Even though I treated you badly in the beginning, you still tried to comfort me. I think that is one of the things I love about you as well as the fact that you always seem ready…"

 _That is one of the things I love about you._

Naruto felt her throat tightened. "Are you trying to tell me that you have feelings for me?"

Todoroki paused and nodded, mismatch eyes flashing with uncertainty about her reaction. He opened his mouth to say something, maybe to tell her that she didn't need to return his feelings or maybe to tell her that it was some kind of joke. All Naruto could do was stare at him, throat tightened at the words spoken by her friend. She took in a couple of deep breaths.

"It's okay if you don't re…"

Naruto shook her head and stood up from her spot. Taking a deep breath, the blonde grabbed hold of Todoroki's shirt, pulled him down and pressed her lips against his, taking in comfort of the strange mixture of coldness and hotness of his lips. She waited for him to push her way, to tell her that this was too soon. Instead he hesitantly kissed her back, moving his lips into an unfamiliar pattern.

They slowly separated from each other and Todoroki furrowed his eyebrows, looking at her like she needed to explain herself. Naruto let out a husky laugh, shaking her head at the boy's actions and tiptoed to kiss him again, pouring all her emotions to him.

"I like you too, Shouto."

It might be too soon to say love but Naruto was willing to explore what her feelings for Todoroki might be.

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A/N: Please review and tell me what you think. Chapters 54-56 were deleted due to the fact that I wanted to do some edits and correct some grammatical errors, so it will be uploaded after two weeks. I am sorry for this inconvenience.


	54. Chapter 54

**A/N: I want to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows.**

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"I presume that you're Hatake Kakashi?"

Kakashi thinned his lips at the sight of a scruffy looking man standing in front of his apartment door. His hand reached for his kunai in his pocket. Other than the scruffy man in front of him, there was no one else who looked like they could be a potential threat. Logic dictated that this man in front of him was not a potential threat.

Threats do not ring the doorbell and not immediately attack.

He slipped the kunai back into his pants pocket, not once did his eyes leave the eyes of the scruffy man. Kakashi straightened his back and slid his upper body forward, stopping the unknown man from attempting to see his temporary lodge.

"Who might you be? I don't believe the two of us met before," Kakashi said, closing his eye and he smiled lazily at the unamused man.

The man pressed his lips into a thin line as if he just sucked some unpleasant lemon juice. "Aizawa Shouta and I'm Uzumaki's homeroom teacher in U.A High School."

Kakashi's lone eye grew large and his mind temporarily blanked out at the man's words. _What is he doing here?_ It was the first thought that came to his head once his brain was finally finished processing the information presented by the man in front of him. It was clear who gave him the information. Only Naruto knew where most of the members of her search party was staying, but what made her tell this man their location.

"I don't wish to cause any trouble," Aizawa held his hand out and patted his body, showing that he was unguarded against him. Black eyes fixed on him, looking almost weary at the fact he contained no weapons to defend himself. "I just want to talk to you about Uzumaki from one teacher to another—you are probably the one of the few people that understands how her brain works."

The earnest shine in those black eyes made Kakashi falter, uncertain on what should be his next course of action. Did he really know Naruto all that well? His research into her Academy grades made him realize just how much he underestimated her intelligence; her true potential. The pain in those blue eyes made Kakashi conscious of the fact that in trying to maintain a professional relationship with Naruto, he made his teacher's daughter think he never cared.

He always cared, but he just never knew exactly how to show it to her without people getting suspicious of their bond.

"I highly doubt that," Kakashi admitted. He slipped back through the small opening of his door and swung it open. The man knitted his eyebrows, looking almost taken back at how freely he admitted those words. Kakashi gestured for him to come through, his eyes darting to the sides to make sure neither Team Eight nor Sakura realize Naruto's other teacher was here.

"You must have a better understanding of what Uzumaki was like in your village."

Kakashi took a seat on the armchair while Aizawa made himself comfortable with the armchair opposite of him. The hero leaned forward, hands clasped together as his black eyes took the time to observe him. The lack of emotions from the teacher brought comfort to Kakashi as it allow him to contemplate what the man wanted to know.

"Which persona do you wish to know? The one she fooled everyone with or the one I am starting to have some clue about?" Kakashi leaned back and focused his attention on the ceiling. His throat tightened as the memories of his days of ANBU guard duty flashed before his eyes.

' _You can guard Naruto, Kakashi but you must never make contact with her while on duty.'_

The only time he ever felt comfortable and confident to try to build some connection with Naruto was whenever he was Inu. A mask allowed him not to feel discomfort, to see just how much the girl looked like her parents.

"The one she fooled _everyone_ with," Aizawa's tone suggested he did not blame him for not realizing just how different his student truly was. While the man could not fault him, Kakashi fault himself for not realizing the truth earlier. His desire to make sure Sasuke didn't choose the wrong path lead to him ignoring both of his students.

It lead to him ignoring the one person who kept Team Seven together.

"Naruto always made it seem like nothing ever gets her down," Kakashi thinned his lips. "I guess I should have known better—no one would be okay after what she went through."

"You mean the emotional and mental abuse by the villagers," Aizawa's voice was cold and harsh. Black eyes narrowed, looking at him like he was the scrum for allowing the girl to go through such a painful childhood. A childhood where the girl felt the constant need to hide who she truly was, because the civilians could never accept the idea of a smart jinchuuriki.

He could never blame the man for looking at him like that because Kakashi blamed himself too.

"Even though she messed up with her missions, Naruto would just get back up and smile again before telling us that she would do better in the next mission." Kakashi kept his tone professional and tried to push back his ignorant days. "Out of the three of them, Naruto was always constantly trying to improve herself. She was always trying to be the best, and she always screamed out her dreams to the world."

"And what was her dream?" Aizawa's voice carried curiosity and his dark eyes shone with interest at what the girl could possibly want.

Kakashi closed his eyes.

' _And my dream? My dream is to be the greatest Hokage so that the whole village will stop disrespecting me and see me as somebody important.'_

"She wanted to become Hokage," Aizawa's eyes grew large and Kakashi exhaled. He pushed back the nostalgia, forced himself to focus on the man that seemed to have a better understanding on how to get through to Naruto. "With the way the civilians ignored her and the way most of the shinobi looked at her, it was understandable why she wanted to become the leader of our village. To be a leader of Konoha would mean that people would look up to her."

"It means she is also going to be forced to protect the villagers," Aizawa scratched his chin. "Despite everything she went through, she wishes to protect the very village that hurt her."

"She was very… _passionate_ about it," Kakashi admitted, wincing as Naruto's yells echoed in his ear. Aizawa snorted as if he understood just what he meant by passionate. "So you can understand how it surprised everyone when she decided to run away from Konoha. Out of everyone in her graduating year, she was the last person you suspected to do this."

"Did you ever stop to think she was capable of resenting the village? The village she wished to protect wanted to throw her out because she messed up in one mission," Kakashi grimaced at the reminder. Naruto informed him about it but the village stood to lose more if she was exiled. Till now, he tried to figure out who was the person who wanted Naruto out.

What would this person gain from Naruto's exile?

"I never stopped to think about it because Naruto has shown time in and time out that she loves Konoha," Kakashi admitted.

' _Old man, I am going to become Hokage!'_

' _I'm going to protect the village like you do, Old Man.'_

How could he ever think Naruto would leave the village when those memories flashed before his eyes? He watched Naruto interact with the Third Hokage. Love for Konoha always shone through those blue eyes. How could one even think she was capable of doing it? Naruto never showed resentment. Her voice never carried any anger to the village despite what they did to her.

Even now Kakashi didn't hear any resentment in Naruto's tone. When Naruto spoke about the village to him in Yokohama, all he heard was sadness and disappointment in the village.

"Anyone else would resent Konoha but Naruto isn't like most people," Kakashi nodded. "Even when people threatened to destroy Konoha, Naruto saved it. She could have allowed them to destroy Konoha but Naruto chose to save it."

Aizawa nodded. "And her teammate? Was there always a possibility he would abandon the village? If you seem surprise about Uzumaki then the boy who nearly killed her? Did it surprise you?"

"He was always a risk." Kakashi admitted. His head throbbed as he recalled the orders the council and the Hokage gave him: keep an eye on Uchiha Sasuke. "I tried hard to reason with Sasuke and tried to lead him into the right path. I didn't want him to choose revenge or power. I wanted him to realize the power of comradeship but I failed."

Aizawa raised his eyebrow. "Could you blame him? He saw his whole family murdered and the murderer was just let go. If he didn't get justice for his family then how do you expect him to stay loyal? How do you expect him to stay sane? If there is no justice, then he will seek it himself. He needed therapy for such a huge loss. No child can handle it even a child raised by ninjas."

"I am fine and I came back home to find that my father committed suicide," Kakashi admitted. Aizawa raised his eyebrow, looking almost unimpressed at his reasoning. "I didn't go through therapy and I handle things fine. The same line of reasoning can be used for Sasuke."

"You have problems connecting with your own students because of what you witness as a soldier," Aizawa said dryly. He leaned forward and wiped the table, nodding his head as if it confirmed his suspicions. He pointed his finger. "You cleaned this table to the point that I can see my reflection which tells me that you suffer from obsessive compulsive disorder."

Kakashi avoided the man's knowing eyes. Was it wrong he wanted everything to be clean and in order? He used to hold himself back whenever he went to Naruto's apartment. The girl had a bad habit of leaving things as a mess, which usually tested his patience.

"I am sure you have other coping mechanism to deal with your losses but the pain you felt when you lost your father—it doesn't compare to how your student lost his family," Aizawa said calmly. "Your father chose to commit suicide while Sasuke's whole family was slaughtered like pigs. Do you really think it was reasonable to compare the pain?"

When the man put in that way, it wasn't reasonable to say those things to Sasuke.

Aizawa shook his head and turned to his bag, zipping it open. Kakashi tilted his head, eyebrows scruntched together as the man searched through his bag. _What is he searching for?_ He could see files of several students, some of them Kakashi recognized from the Sports Festival that Naruto won.

Aizawa pulled out a file and handed it to him. "This is the psychological assessment the therapist made of Uzumaki from their meeting."

"You made Naruto go to therapy."

He didn't know whether to thank the man or to be upset for not realizing this should have been his first course of action when Naruto became his student.

"She was willing to throw her life away to protect the other students and that isn't her job," Aizawa grimaced and scratched the back of his neck. "She believes her life has no meaning because she felt like no one would care if she dies. The moment Uzumaki passed my entrance test, she became my responsibility. I take my responsibilities very seriously, Hatake."

He winced at the subtle dig that the man gave to him.

"I know you care about her and I realize you feel guilty of what happened that day, but if you want Uzumaki to get better than let her stay here," Aizawa straightened his back and focused his eyes on him. "She still needs to recover from the treatment for the psychological abuse the villagers put her through."

Kakashi stared down at the file and sighed. "I want her to get better and I want her to be happy, but we aren't the problem. She left the village without permission and most of the councilmembers doubts her loyalty to the village. If we came back without her then the council will take it as Naruto betraying the village. They will send someone else who would most likely drag her back and kill her."

Aizawa grimaced. "Then can you argue the case? It should be her choice to go back there. If she says she wants to stay here, then she shouldn't be forced to go back there."

"If the problem was that simple then we would have left by now," Kakashi said, rubbing his forehead. He took a deep breath. "But the shinobi council wants Naruto back, and they will do anything to get her back. She might get my support and even the other shinobi clans, but the councilmembers don't see her as human. They never saw her as…"

' _Kakashi-sensei, do you know of anyone in Konoha that wants me back? Anyone that wants to show me off to the world?"_

His throat burned as another memory played before his eyes.

' _Give the jinchuuriki to me, Sarutobi. Don't let your fondness for her cloud your judgement on her potential!'_

It would make sense, wouldn't it? Wait for Naruto to lose control of the Kyuubi and make those civilians doubt Naruto's capabilities of controlling the demon. The man would then use it as his opportunity to pressure Tsunade to give Naruto to him. To make her into the very weapon that Minato-sensei refused her to become. The reason the Third Hokage made sure to have ANBU always watching her until she became a genin.

He knew who would be willing to make a deal with those Villains to get Naruto back.

The only problem was that he needed to find proof of his actions.

* * *

' _I like you too, Shouto.'_

Naruto pressed her face against her clothes. The memory of last night played like a movie and it almost felt like a dream if you asked her. Not once did she ever believe Shouto would return her feelings. It never even crossed her mind the idea that her friend ( _boyfriend,_ her mind corrected) would be the one to confess to her.

Her fingers touched her lips and Naruto furiously shook her head. It was time for her to finish packing her luggage and time for her to get ready for her meeting with Itachi. This was not the time to reminisce about how nice her first kiss with Shouto. She wished Shouto had been her first actual kiss, not Sasuke. Her first kiss should have been with the boy she had feelings for.

It was all Shikamaru's fault that her first kiss had to be with Sasuke and not Shouto. Now she just had the comfort of knowing that Shouto was the first boy she willingly kissed, the first boy she actually truly liked. The boy who made her act like an even bigger idiot.

"So who is the lucky boy?"

Naruto jerked her head up. She twisted around and squeaked at the sight of Kumiko leaning against the door. Her Aunt folded her arms against her chest, green eyes staring at her with both amusement and understanding. Naruto flushed a brighter shade of pink as she realized her relative figured out the root cause of her embarrassing behaviour.

The woman might not have been a shinobi, but Naruto wouldn't deny her uncle's wife was a very sharp woman.

"I don't know what you are talking about."

Just because Kumiko was sharp doesn't mean Naruto wanted to tell her about her new relationship. It was still new and fragile to her. Something that she wanted to keep to herself because Naruto still couldn't believe it. It was not just because Shouto confessed to her, but because someone actually loved her. Despite seeing her in her worse and knowing about the Kyuubi, Shouto still chose to be with her.

He wanted to be with her.

The woman raised her eyebrow. "That trick might work with Kenji and even Eisuke but that won't work on me. Now tell me who is the lucky boy that confessed to you?"

Naruto darted her eyes to the opened door. It was not like she didn't want to tell the woman but Kenji made it clear to her about how much he didn't like Todoroki. Actually Kenji made it explicitly clear to her that he was not fond about any of the boys in her life. It just seemed like he disliked Shouto the most, which was weird. She would have thought Shouto would get his approval.

Shouto respected her and he treated her very well.

"If I tell you then will you promise not to tell Uncle Kenji?"

"You think Kenji is going to take things too far when he finds out about your boyfriend," Kumiko guessed. Naruto nodded, not bothering to correct the woman about her presumption. She loved her relative. How could she not love him? He accepted her for who she was. He told her stories about her mother, but the man seemed to have a vendetta against any boy who looked her way.

Sometimes Naruto wondered if that was what it meant to have a father. Fathers were supposed to hate any boy who looked at their daughter's way and Ero-Sennin told her that her father would have hated Shouto. Her father would have just hated Shouto because he thought he would take her away from him.

"He glared at Shouto when he and the others came to the house to study for the finals," Naruto pointed out. Kumiko sighed and shook her head, looking almost faintly amused at her words. "Shouto and I weren't even dating, and he already looked like he wanted to murder him."

"You might have been with us for a short time Naruto, but Kenji loves you like you are Akane or Kiko." Kumiko smiled softly. "He just worries that you would get your heart broken by him. I even think he remembers the days when he was a teenager and how careless he was in his own relationships."

"But Shouto isn't like that."

Kumiko nodded. "I can tell that Todoroki-kun has deep feelings for you and the same goes for you, but Kenji doesn't see things the way I see it or even you. He might not have raised you and he might not be your biological father, but when Kenji vowed to take care of you—he means it. He will even kill for you if he has too and he would even sacrifice his life to protect you."

' _He would even sacrifice his life to protect you .'_

Those words should never make her happy but it warmed Naruto to know she had a family who loves and cares for her.

It would be impossible for her to throw it all that away.

* * *

"When you wished for us to meet in your house, I presumed there would be no one else."

Naruto rubbed the back of her neck as Kenji locked his eyes on Itachi. She knew it would be a better idea for the three of them to meet in her workplace but none of the members of her search party knew the truth. The sight of Itachi Uchiha having tea with her would raise a lot of questions from her teammate and teacher. They might even try to capture him, which was the last thing Naruto wanted.

Itachi raised his eyebrow at her. "Is he the famous Uzushiokage?"

"You're talking about my idiotic son." Itachi nodded while Naruto raised her eyebrow at her uncle. She knew Kenji didn't actually believe his son was an idiot, but it would be nice if the man didn't insult him in front of people. Eisuke respected him, trying his hardest to get his approval. "But if you are asking me if I'm the Head of the Uzumaki Clan then yes. Eisuke uses my title because once I pass away, it will be his job to take care of the clan."

Itachi nodded and bowed his head slightly, earning a raised eyebrow from Naruto. She tilted her head, eyebrows scrunched together at the posture while Kenji curled his lips slightly. He looked almost amused at the gesture that the man shown towards him, which befuddled her. Why did Itachi do this? Blue eyes widened when she recalled the etiquette rules Hinata tried to install in her.

She never did find any point showing her respect to her elders.

"Why did you inform him?" Itachi's voice was blank, almost reminding Naruto of those robot cartoons Kiko loved to watch in the weekends. He fixed his blank eyes on her, unblinking as he waited for her to respond.

Naruto rubbed the back of her neck. Would he understand she might have a bit of a breakdown when she finally processed the truth? There had been no one she could think of that could comfort her. Ero-Sennin probably knew the truth but decided she was too much of a loudmouth to know it. Kenji seemed like the best option at the time. He used to be a shinobi. He probably understood her pain.

"She wanted someone to talk to and out of everyone she knows, I was probably the best person to go to," Kenji explained. He stretched his back and darted his eyes to the television, which announced that two more people had been kidnapped. "She couldn't go to Eisuke because my son has never been a shinobi. He doesn't understand the sacrifice you made to protect your brother."

Itachi looked at her. His eyes silently asked her if the words were true but the blonde avoided his black eyes. Was it that surprising she understood how big of a sacrifice he made? Just because she had been alone all her life, doesn't mean she was blind to the emotional pain he and Sasuke went through. Being alone throughout her life meant she observed people. She might never show it in the same way as other people, but she was not blind.

"And you do?" Itachi questioned.

"I watched several members of my clan murdered like pigs by our enemies," Kenji pressed his lips into a thin line. "Now if I found it difficult to watch them die then I can imagine just how painful it was to kill all those family members. You could have chosen to die with them and maybe you would have… if they didn't dangle the opportunity to save your brother. They weren't actually giving you a choice not when they know just how strong your love for your brother is."

Itachi kept quiet, not trying to deny the words. How could he deny it? Naruto knew from just watching Sasuke and Itachi that the two brothers adored each other. All Sasuke ever did was talk about how great he was. It used to annoy the hell out of her because he kept rubbing it to the girl without any parents. She presumed that was when she decided to call Itachi Uchiha as Sasuke's brother, never using the so called titles that Sasuke used for him.

The wind tickled her face and Naruto scrunched her eyebrows together. Blue eyes darted around the living room, trying to find the hidden source of the familiar scent of her childhood. It had been eight years since she last smelled it. Eight years since one of her favourite ANBU guard went missing, leaving her alone with the guards that never seemed willing to make some form of contact with her.

"I couldn't let them kill him too."

Kenji thinned his lips. "But you shouldn't have let him be ignorant about what your clan did."

"I don't want him to hate Konoha."

"He will commit suicide." Itachi jerked his head at Kenji and her uncle narrowed his eyes at him. Hazel eyes squinted, looking at the former ANBU like he was the foolish one. The older male sighed. "You didn't think of that possibility, did you? Let me ask you a question, what is your brother's dream?"

"To kill me."

Kenji nodded. "And once he fulfills that goal, what would be his next dream? You are the reason he lives and once you are gone, the boy won't have a reason to live."

"Telling him the truth mean Sasuke would wish to kill Konoha," Itachi said firmly. He flickered his eyes at her and Naruto grimaced, nodding her head. As much as she wanted to have faith in her best friend, Naruto knew Sasuke would wish to destroy Konoha if he knew the truth. It was a huge possibility, but she had faith he would choose the right path. The Sasuke, who was her best friend, was still there.

She could feel it.

"Maybe," Kenji agreed. "But your brother cannot stay ignorant of the world around him. He needs to understand the consequence of what your Clan planned and failed to do. If he kills you and goes back to the village, who is to say that his descendants won't follow the same path? There is a reason we learn History and what makes you think he might even come back to Konoha? He run away from the village and joined a missing nin."

Itachi rubbed the side of his forehead and grimaced. Naruto knitted her eyebrows at the uncharacteristic facial expression. She observed the boy, noticing for the first time that the man looked even paler than her memories. _It is almost like he is sick._ Naruto furiously shook her head at the thought. Her eyes were just playing tricks on her again.

"Naruto is the only one that he will listen to. Sasuke thinks of her as his most precious person."

' _Sasuke looks like he has a crush on you.'_

She closed her eyes, trying to stop herself from feeling guilty. It was not her fault she couldn't return his feelings. She made it clear to him in the Valley of the End that she _loves_ him like a brother. In those three years, this thought and conviction never wavered. Sasuke was her brother in everything but blood. She would go through hell for him, but she won't pretend to return his feelings.

It would be cruel to the both of them.

"I know he loves me but I don't love him in that way," Naruto softly said. She fixed her eyes on Itachi, hoping and praying he would forgive her for breaking his brother's heart. "Do you think if I bring him back that I can return his feelings? Sasuke has always been like a brother to me. When he knows the truth then he might just hate me, and he might just run away again. I can't offer him the love that he wants from me."

Itachi didn't seem faze one bit about her words. His eyes did not reveal his emotions about how he felt about her confessions. Sasuke deserved better than for her to lie to him. He would just hate her for not being honest with him, because god knew she would be upset if someone lied to her about their feelings towards her.

Naruto took a deep breath and fixed her eyes on him. "You're capable of bringing him back to Konoha because he still listens to you. Everything he does is because of the twisted actions that you decided to take upon yourself to protect him."

"She is right," Kenji leaned forward and regarded the man. "You created this mess so you need to be—"

Itachi coughed and coughed, stopping Kenji from finishing his sentence. The man looked irritated but irritation faded when they saw the blood staining the table that Kumiko dearly loved.

Naruto's mind went blank as Kenji grabbed Itachi, his husky voice demanding him to tell him if he was okay. Blood was never a good sign. This was something Naruto did know from observing one of her classmates in Middle School. He used to overdo it with his Quirk, which meant that he used to cough out blood. It was a side effect of pushing his Quirk to the limit as some students would whisper whenever he went to the nursery.

Naruto wondered if the same could be applied to Kekkai Genkai.

* * *

Uzumaki Tomoko had seen a lot of things since she became a doctor, but this was probably the first time the Head of her father's clan requested for her to treat some stranger. It filled her with pride to know he trusted in her Quirk and of her capabilities as a future doctor. Maybe now if all those nurses and older doctors stopped comparing her to her mother then everything would be perfect.

She flickered her eyes to Kenji and then to the latest found member of their clan: Naruto. It was clear for her to see what made the Clan Head to take her in. The girl looked almost exactly like Kenji's favourite cousin. Her father used to joke about how out of all the clans members, Kushina Uzumaki had been the man's favourite. Now she realized the truth behind those words because Kenji-sama rarely contacted her through her personal phone.

He was not going to be pleased with what she was about to tell him.

"I healed him to a certain extent, Kenji-sama," Tomoko admitted. Naruto relaxed her shoulders while Kenji narrowed his eyes, telling the twenty-one-year old that the man knew her hidden words.

"Why didn't you heal him all the way, Tomoko?" Kenji questioned. His hazel eyes stared at the unconscious man and than back to her, waiting for her to explain herself. "Your Kekkai Genkai allows you to heal injuries and sickness."

Tomoko pressed her lips into a thin line while Naruto flickered her eyes between the two of them. Her Quirk might be soul-based but if she took too much of the disease, then there was a possibility she would die of the illness as well. Her mother worked herself to the death using this Quirk, taking in all of those sicknesses and it ruined her.

Tomoko was not going to follow the same path.

"If I healed him all the way then I will suffer from the same illness as well," Tomoko explained. She grabbed the scans that the nurses put Itachi through, amber eyes fixated on the images. She curled her lips and her eyes nearly twinkled. This was definitely not a normal disease, it was a complicated one.

Complicated diseases meant a challenge and she loved challenges.

"Do you know what he is suffering from?" Naruto asked, eyebrows knitted together.

"I don't know but I can guess that it is an autoimmune disease that is attacking his major organs and his eyes," Naruto frowned and Tomoko pressed her lips into a thin line. More tests would be needed to be done for her to figure out what exactly was the main source of his sickness. "I will also need to get Uncle Hirohito to check on his chakra system to see if it is also attacking his chakra network."

"Is it that serious?" Naruto squeaked.

Tomoko regarded the girl and nodded. "I don't know what toxin this idiot used, but he somehow managed to slow down the progression of his disease. If it had been anyone else, they would have been dead over a year ago."

"Why didn't he go to the doctor earlier?" Kenji grumbled.

Tomoko tilted her head. She wondered about it as well when she began to treat him. A few of the symptoms that she could treat were curable, but the pain was unbearable. What would push someone to go through this much pain? Why not get treatment when given the chance? She supposed it was because he was a criminal in the Elemental Countries. The chances of someone wanting to treat him would be very low, maybe even impossible.

"How long has he been in Japan?"

"A month—I think," Naruto answered immediately.

 _Something doesn't add up._ Tomoko flipped through the scans and tried to guess how long the disease must have progress. She also needed to figure out why this guy didn't immediately go to the doctor, because it was clear he knew he was sick from the toxins he pumped into his system. She would never have a clear picture until Itachi Uchiha woke up. This type of disease was foreign to her and the other doctors, but Tomoko would do everything in her power to cure it. It would be her opportunity to show those doctors that she was better than her mother.

"You said he has no family members here, right?" Naruto nodded and Tomoko grimaced. It would be awhile before she could get her hands on his family health history. There was no telling if he even planned to give it to her. If he avoided going to the doctor for this long, then he must have one hell of a reason.

Kenji darted his eyes at her. "How long does he need to stay here?"

"Until I find a cure for his disease or at the very least get the medications he needs to control the disease," Tomoko admitted. She rubbed her hands together, earning a weary look from Kenji and a surprised look from Naruto. "If I allow him to roam free then he might just collapse again. Besides, we need to do additional tests and search for some alternative cures."

"You will cure him."

Tomoko nodded. She wasn't doing this from the goodness of her heart, which was wrong of her since she was trained as a doctor. The only reason she planned to spend the next couple of months without any sleep, sacrifice any time with her father and baby brother was because she needed the medical world know that she was greater than her mother.

She _wants_ to be the best doctor in the whole of Japan.

* * *

 **A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter.**


	55. Chapter 55

**A/N: I would like to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows.**

* * *

"You are finally awake."

Itachi forced himself to sit up straight as a grey-haired woman, around his age, stared at him with unamused eyes. He tried to recall what happened for him to be in this woman's presence. Naruto had been talking to him, trying to convince him that he should be the one to bring Sasuke back. He remembered that he couldn't contain the cough, even though he took some medication before he met with Naruto.

He frowned when he saw the clean white coat around the woman's slim figure. "Where am I?"

"You're in a hospital after scaring the shit out of Kenji-sama and Naruto," the woman replied. "Kenji-sama called me to try and treat you because he thought your illness was something I can cure with my Quirk. Imagine my surprise when I found out that your illness was one that I have no treatment for, if I were to take it all away and transferred it to myself. Luckily I treated some of the symptoms and transferred it to myself."

 _A Kekkai Genkai that can take away illness and transfer it to one's self? I didn't know it was possible._ He darted his eyes to the name tag on the woman's lab coat. _Dr. Uzumaki Tomoko._ That explained why the woman called Naruto's uncle by his title, but the lack of red hair meant that the woman was like Naruto. A child born to one Uzumaki parent and one non-Uzumaki, although it must be her mother.

"Thank you."

Tomoko pressed her lips into a thin line. "Can you explain to me when did you start getting these symptoms?"

Itachi regarded Tomoko, black eyes fixated on the curious glint in her eyes. He flickered his eyes to the clipboard in her hands, wondering if the woman planned to cure him of his illness. The length of time that he got the illness was not going to tell her about how he could be cured, it would just give her a framework. If the woman asked him for the symptoms then he would refuse.

He wanted to die by his brother's hand.

"Eight years ago."

Tomoko raised her eyebrows and noted down his answer in the clipboard. "Is it genetic? Did your parents have this disease?"

Itachi shook his head. He knew none of his family members suffered from this strange illness that plagued him. His father didn't have the Mangekyo Sharingan nor did his mother have it. Shishui had been murdered before using it for an extensive amount of time. As far as he was concerned, he was the only one suffering from the disease. It only started to appear after he used the eye for extensive periods of time.

"Not genetic," she muttered. "Maybe a mutation in a gene? But in which chromosome?"

The woman ran her hand through her hair, amber eyes glinted with joy as if this knowledge delighted her in this way. _She is a very strange woman._ Why did she find delight in this knowledge? He darted his eyes towards the door, frowning when he caught sight of a couple of women and even a few men staring at them. His head throbbed as he realized the look in those people's eyes.

He thought he escaped from fanboys and fangirls.

"What's…" Tomoko's voice faded as she followed his line of sight. The woman pressed her lips into a thin line, put down the clipboard and charged towards the peeking people. For a brief moment, Itachi was reminded of a tiger that wanted to protect her territory.

"Don't you have patients to attend to? I am working here!" Tomoko snapped.

The nurses frowned. "Dr. Uzumaki, we just wanted to…"

"Ogle the newest patient like he is an animal on display?" She asked calmly. The nurses flinched at her words, looking almost apologetic for their actions. He kept his expression blank when one of the nurses darted their eyes at him, her cheeks flushed pink. "It is bad enough you do this when Uzushiokage visits or when the heroes come here, now you are doing this to a civilian. What is the motto of this hospital when it comes to patients?"

"That we treat all patients the same despite their looks or status _."_ The nurses muttered.

Tomoko raised her eyebrow. "Say it louder."

" _That we treat all patients the same despite their looks or status!"_

Itachi felt his head throbbed as their yells echoed throughout the corridor. It was clear to him that despite her young age that Tomoko Uzumaki demanded and commanded the respect of the people around her. He flickered his eyes to the vase beside his table, eyebrows raised at the yellow daises. Who would give this to him? He doubt Naruto would do this. The girl was still upset with him for what he put Sasuke through.

He didn't even blame her.

"Like them? Naruto came here and put them there before she went to her high school," Itachi raised his eyebrow while Tomoko curled her lips. "I don't know what the hell you did to be considered a criminal in your village and frankly I don't care. You are probably not even a bad person if Kenji-sama wanted you to be cured of this illness."

"I don't want to be cured."

Tomoko pressed her lips into a thin line. "Why?"

Itachi kept quiet, not feeling even remotely comfortable of telling some stranger about his desire to die. He was grateful that the woman eased his symptoms, allowing him more time to figure out how to deal with his foolish brother. The fact his eyesight was slightly better comforted him, telling him at least when Sasuke killed him then he might just see better.

The woman nodded as if the lack of answer was all the answers that she needed. "You don't trust me, do you? I can't blame you since you don't know me, so we will change things. I tell you a fact about myself and you do the same, that way we can form some kind of friendship."

Itachi knew the actual role of the woman's idea. The woman probably believed by him opening up about certain things to her then she could figure out the reason that he didn't want to be cured. He would not give this woman the satisfaction, not when he planned to go out of this world by Sasuke's hand.

"My name is Uzumaki Tomoko and my favourite colour is green," Tomoko declared. "Now it is your turn."

Itachi contemplated for a moment what to tell her and finally decided. "My name is Uchiha Itachi."

Tomoko raised her eyebrow, waiting for him to say something more but Itachi just kept quiet. He just flickered his eyes to the daisy, wondering if Naruto did know the truth about him. Whenever the girl used to be upset, Itachi would subtly drop a daisy for her and write her a note. The Hokage knew about it but kept quiet. The Third found nothing wrong with his actions, knowing that he tried to cheer up his mother's goddaughter.

"You plan to make my job difficult, don't you?" Tomoko sighed and just smiled. "Well that's fine because I will get you to crack. If I were to give up when something never went my way, then I would never become a doctor."

Itachi had the strangest feeling that this woman would not stop till she got the answers that she wanted.

* * *

Naruto knew she should be happy to walk through the large pearly gates of her school. Today was supposed to be the day she saw all of her friends. It was also the first day of their new living arrangement, which meant more opportunities to spend time with her friends. She should have a real smile on her lips instead of the large smile plastered on her face.

' _If it had been anyone else, they would have been dead over a year ago.'_

Those words echoed in her ear and not even the sight of Todoroki standing there with his backpack was enough to make her put on a real smile. How could she smile when this knowledge weighed in her mind. The plan of letting Itachi deal with Sasuke had to be scrapped. Tomoko said it herself that Itachi was lucky to be alive. If she made him go and reasoned with her teammate then he might just die.

He might even die before he could reach Sasuke.

"What's wrong, Naruto?"

She halted in her steps and stared at Todoroki. The younger boy stared at her, his mismatch eyes shining with so much concern that Naruto felt her heart clenched. It still took her surprise whenever he showed concern for her well-being. Even with the large smile plastered on her lips, her boyfriend knew she was not emotionally well.

The fact he cared so much about her made it impossible for her to contemplate lying to him.

"I saw Itachi yesterday," Naruto admitted. She ran her hands through her hair, smoothing out the stray hair. Her lips twisted into a frown as she recalled the events that occurred. "I was trying to convince him that he is the only one capable to bring Sasuke back to Konoha. I think I might have stressed him out because he started coughing out blood and Uncle Kenji called a member of our clan to treat him."

Todoroki frowned and held his arms out, his mismatch eyes looked uncertain as if this was the right course of action. Naruto's eyes softened and without a second thought, she hugged him. The husky scent of her boyfriend soothed her, reminding her that she was not alone at the moment. It calmed her nerves while she contemplated about telling him of her reluctant decision.

"I think his brother's actions stressed him out, not you."

Naruto burrowed her head deeper, wishing those words were true. It might have been one of the reasons but Itachi wanted his brother's happiness in his own twisted way. The fact she admitted she could never return those feelings of love for Sasuke must have upset him in some way. It hurt her too, but she was not willing to sacrifice her feelings for Sasuke.

She couldn't tell him this.

"Sasuke always kept talking about how he wanted to revenge his family but will he be willing to throw it all away when he finds out that his brother is sick?" She mumbled, her voice muffled by Todoroki's shirt.

Todoroki didn't answer instead he ran his hands through her hair, calming down the pain in her heart. These small gestures should not be enough to soothed her but it was. The heat of his left side comforted her, reminding her almost of those summer days when she used to do missions with her team. She took in another deep breath.

"You plan to drag him here to confront his brother, don't you?" Todoroki stated. There was no judgment in his voice nor could she hear any hints of jealously, which almost made her smile. Most people would tend to overthink about the friendship between Sasuke and her, but Todoroki seemed to understand that she could just not stop herself from meddling with her friend's life.

"You were right when you said that I can't help but stick my nose into a delicate topic," Naruto sighed. She looked up at her boyfriend, blue eyes searching for any signs of discomfort in her boyfriend. _He really does seem to understand my desire to bring him here._ She wondered how could she be lucky to have someone this understanding in her life. "I have to bring him back."

Todoroki looked down at her. "He deserves to know his brother is sick. I think it is only right for you to stick your nose into his business. I doubt he will be pleased when he learns that his brother has been sick all along."

 _I know that but will Sasuke be willing to come with me? Will he even believe me if I tell him that his brother is sick?_ Naruto chewed on her bottom lip and sniffed Todoroki again. She tried to regain control of her aching heart. Everyone seemed to think Sasuke would listen to her, but a part of her felt doubt he would listen to her. There had been days when she felt like he mocked her, days when she thought he believed he was truly better than her.

Maybe he was more skilled than her and it pained her so much to admit this, but she truly wanted the two brothers to fix their issues.

Naruto shook her head and looked up at Todoroki. Her boyfriend had his eyes fixed on the trees behind her, his hands rubbing small circles around her back. Sasuke has only one brother and it took her awhile to remember he had a brother. Todoroki had siblings, which meant he wasn't an only child like her. What was their relationship like? Did he start to bond with them after what happened in the Sports Festival?

She hoped so because he deserved to be happy.

"I know this is coming out of nowhere but how may brothers do you have?" Naruto asked, tilting her head. She smiled which earned a sigh from her boyfriend. "Are you guys close?"

Todoroki pressed his lips into a thin line. "I have two older brothers: Touya and Natsuo and I'm not close with either of them."

 _Touya and Natsuo._ Naruto chewed on her bottom lip as the memory of the training camp flashed before her eyes. Even now she could still recall those turquoise eyes of Dabi and the anger flowing out of them. It was only a idea but Dabi seemed like he could be Shouto's brother. Their eyes were the same and the way he used his Quirk reminded her of her boyfriend.

"You can try and build a bond with them," Naruto told him.

Todoroki nodded. "Maybe with Natsuo but Touya isn't a possibility."

"Why?"

Her boyfriend sighed and for the first time since Naruto knew him, she could see the sadness in his eyes. This was not the same kind of sadness he had for his mother, it was a deeper kind of pain that Naruto doubt she would ever understand. What happened between the two brothers? What could have happened for Shouto to look this troubled?

It worried her.

"Touya ran away from home when I was eight, after getting into a huge fight with Endeavour about the training that I was going through," Todoroki admitted. His tone carried no emotions but Naruto knew there was more to the story. She could just imagine how furious Endeavour was with his brother for intervening with his training. It must haven't been pretty and The two brothers might not have been close, but Touya did care about the hell Shouto was going through.

Naruto hugged him and wished she knew what the right words were to say to him. She wished she was like Hinata who seemed to know the right words to comfort people. There was nothing Naruto could say that could convey how much she knew it hurt him. Would her hugs be enough comfort to him? She wondered how he must have felt that day.

"He wanted to protect you."

 _It was his choice and you should never blame yourself._ She hoped her eyes conveyed her thoughts and judging from the grateful look in Shouto's eyes, it did. Did all brothers go through hell to protect their siblings? Itachi went as far as to murder his own clan just to protect Sasuke, while Shouto's brother confronted their abusive father.

Would it be possible that Touya chose to become Dabi to save his family? It seemed twisted in her mind, but Itachi killed his whole family to protect his baby brother. Becoming a criminal and joining a criminal group that seemed intent on destroying heroes didn't seem a stretch. Her heart ached as she realized that if this was true, then her boyfriend might become hurt about this.

Todoroki's cold finger touched her cheeks, rubbing away the tears pouring out of her eyes. Naruto rubbed her cheeks, giving him a tiny apologetic smile but Todoroki just shook his head. The emotions in his eyes told her that he was grateful for her to show the emotions that he was not willing for the world to know. She wished she could do more for him, because Todoroki did so many things to comfort her.

"You guys might not have been close but I think he loves you and your siblings," Naruto declared, smiling widely at him. Todoroki's eyes softened at her words but she could see the doubt in his eyes. It was fair for him to doubt the truth behind her words. Endeavour seemed to make it clear that out of all his children, he seemed to favour Todoroki the most.

It was not even because he was his youngest child, but because he had the strongest Quirk between the four of them.

"He was close with Natsuo and Fuyumi," Todoroki admitted. "But I think he resented me. Until I developed my Quirk, it was Touya that was being forced to do Endeavour's training. Endeavour used to say that Touya had a fire Quirk stronger than his but he called him weak."

Naruto tilted her head, uncertain on what to say. She knew of only one other father who would say such hurtful things to their child. Hinata had been in the same boat as Shouto's brother. The fact that her best friend was a gentle girl, unwilling to give the killing blow annoyed Hiashi. It annoyed him to the point that he disinherited Hinata and placed Hanabi as the heiress, claiming her Byakugan was better than Hinata's.

If it wasn't for the fact Naruto insisted to Hinata that she was stronger than her baby sister, then her friend might not have challenge back her status as clan heiress. Naruto also guessed her best friend challenged for her title, because she didn't want Hanabi to go through the same rigorous training that Hinata had been forced to endure.

"Hinata-chan was called weak by her father," Todoroki blinked and Naruto just smiled. "It wasn't because of her Kekkai Genkai. It was because Hinata-chan refuses to intentionally hurt people with her palms, so she always lessens her chakra flow or even just miss the intended target. Her father knew this and decided to give the status of Clan Heiress to her younger sister."

Todoroki kept quiet.

"Three years ago after the Chunin Exams, Hinata-chan decided to challenge back for her status as Clan Heiress," Naruto continued. "And I think I know why she did it. It wasn't because she wanted to just change how her clan was run, but because she didn't want her sister to be put through the same hell she went through. If Touya was anything similar to Hinata then I think he resents himself for not being the child your father wanted. I think he resents the fact he can't protect you or your siblings from him. In your father's eyes, he is weak but the truth is…he might be stronger than everyone think he is."

Todoroki just tilted his head, looking at her thoughtfully. She could sense her words had given him things to think of but that her words might have caused him to be just a bit sad. What could she do to cheer him up? Hugging him wasn't enough and she would kiss him, if she wasn't certain that it wouldn't be long before their classmates come.

A bet.

"Do you want to make a bet on how long it takes for the others to realize we are dating? I give them six months," Naruto grinned at him and her boyfriend tilted his head, contemplating on her question. The sadness seemed to be slowly fading from him, which earned an even brighter smile from the whiskered girl.

He nodded. "If you win then what do you want?"

"I haven't thought about it." Todoroki raised his eyebrow, looking almost like he didn't believe her. Naruto tilted her head and tapped her finger against her cheek, contemplating of what she wanted from him. If Todoroki knew how to cook then she would ask him to cook for her, but her boyfriend was clueless when it came to the kitchen. Her lips twitched when she recalled of his flushed cheeks during the first day of Training Camp.

She knew exactly what caused it, but it would be nice to hear Todoroki say it.

"You tell me what you were thinking about that made you blush," Naruto declared, grinning at him. Todoroki flushed red, no doubt knowing exactly what she was talking about. She beamed at him, hoping and praying that he would go along with her wishes. She knew it was a little bit cruel of her, but Naruto really liked it when he flushed red. It meant that she wasn't the only one who could get flustered.

Todoroki nodded. "I bet three months and if I win? What do I get?"

Naruto tilted her head and smiled mischievously at her boyfriend. "I will do whatever you want."

 _I think Ero-Sennin has more influence on me then I thought._ Naruto kept her face blank and pushed back the images that flashed through her mind. Even though Ero-Sennin had Mineta to correct him and give him ideas about his book series, the man still insisted she corrected some of his handwritten manuscripts. Her cheeks started to burn slightly as she recalled the content of his latest book.

It seemed like she was not the only one who had troubling thoughts. Todoroki's cheeks had a light shade of pink decorating his face and a small tickle of blood creeped out of his nose, telling Naruto exactly what was going through his head. She smiled even wider when Todoroki furiously shook his head.

She tilted her head and smiled cheekily at her boyfriend.

"Want to tell me what you were thinking about, Shouto- _kun_?" Naruto allowed herself to purr and for the first time in her life, she was glad for all those kunoichi lessons. A small giggle escaped her lips when Todoroki's face turned an even brighter shade of red. She scanned the area, trying to see if there was anyone in the area.

No one was here which meant she had free reign to do what she wanted.

She tipped toed, silently cursing at the fact that Todoroki was so tall while doing so, and kissed the corner of his mouth. It would have been nicer if she kissed him on the lips, but it wouldn't be as fun to see the slight disappointment in Todoroki's eyes.

Naruto grinned.

"Catch me if you can, Shouto!"

She could only let out a joyous laugh as Todoroki chased after her.

* * *

 _It took them just three days to build this place? This place looks larger than all the house and apartments that I have lived in._ Naruto stared up wide eye at the huge dorm building they would be staying in. The dorms had been constructed a five minute walk away from the main building over the past three days ever since the boarding school proposal had been approved by all parents and guardians.

Height Alliance was now going to be her new home but it looked much fancier than any place she stayed in. It looked like a mansion and was almost as pretty as Hinata's compound except for the large 1-A plastered on the front of the 'Alliance' sign hung over the doors.

"This place is huge!" Rikou yelled, eyes growing large at the size of their new home.

Mina wrapped her slim arms around Naruto and yelled out. "We are living in a mansion!"

Sero glanced over at them with a large grin. "Looks like everyone got permission to stay, huh?"

"I barely got permission!" Toru exclaimed. "My parents really fought tooth and nail because I was knocked out by the gas."

Naruto grimaced at the reminder of the gas attack. It could have been worse if it hadn't been for Hinata and the others knocking the bastard out, but it was still terrible. _It is a good thing Shouto and Bakugou weren't anywhere near the gas._ She glanced at Todoroki who glanced right back at her. She tried to stop herself from beaming at him, only to fail when he gave her a tiny smile.

Mina grinned at the exchange and nudged her in the rib. "This is your chance to get closer to Todoroki and tell him that _you love him_."

Her cheeks burned as Mina giggled at Naruto's embarrassment. _She isn't exactly wrong about it but I can't come out and tell her that Shouto and I are in a relationship._ It would just ruin the bet she made with Todoroki which meant that neither of them would win. God knew she wanted to win and hear out loud whether her suspicions had been right or not.

A white cloth zipped passed Bakugou and wrapped around Naruto's head, jerking her back to reality. Black eyes stared unamused at her lack of attention while her classmates giggled at the action done by their teacher to get Naruto back to reality. " _As I was saying_ , I am glad that all of you have gathered here safely. With everything that has happened, we're all lucky to be back at U.A, and I am glad you're all in my care once again."

"We're also glad you are okay too, Aizawa-sensei!" Tsuyu piped up, a frown on her face. "When we were watching the press conference, we were upset of the possibility that you might not be with us anymore!"

"Me too," Ochako agreed.

Aizawa shrugged and scratched his cheek, looking almost uncomfortable with their care. "I'm surprised as well but this is probably to do with the events arising from All Might's sudden retirement."

"Now then I'm going to be giving you all a brief explanation on how the dorms will work, but first let us get something out of the way," His eyes grew stern as he laid his eyes on three students. "I have a lot of things to deal with and learned a lot of things so this slipped my mind during the home visits but this is important as it involves everyone here."

 _I knew he had been far too calm during the visit with Uncle Kenji._

"Uzumaki, Todoroki and Kirishima," Aizawa barked. The three students straightened their backs as almost everyone swirled their heads at them, eyebrows knitted together at why the other two students had been called out. "On that night, you three headed to _that place_ to rescue Bakugou."

"You did what!"

"Why didn't you tell us!"

"Were you insane?"

Aizawa nodded as if the reactions of the other students confirmed his suspicions. "I see that none of you knew of their intention which makes me ask…whose idea was it?"

"It was my idea but I never intended to get anyone involved," Naruto admitted. She straightened her back and looked her teacher straight in the eye. "Shouto and Kirishima came because Shouto knew I was planning to rescue Bakugou since Team Eight were more than capable of finding him. Kirshima wanted to save Bakugou too so went with Shouto to confront me. None of the other students knew about it because I didn't want anyone to get involved."

"Naruto really didn't want us to come along," Kirishima confirmed.

"Uzumaki, you are very lucky that the media has been singing praises about your heroic deed because I would have expelled you for those reckless actions." Naruto winced but Mina threw her arm around her, caramel eyes flickering to Todoroki. The boy had his hand clenched into a tight ball of fist while his expression revealed nothing about his feelings.

"Instead the three of you would be in charge of cleaning the dorms for the next two weeks. The three of you will need to earn my trust again after this stunt."

"Yes sir."

There was no way she could argue against Aizawa's decision, not when she broke the rules and endangered her friends.

Aizawa turned and led the way into the dorms. "That's all! Smile and look alive, kids. Time for the grand tour and all that jazz."

They made their way into the common room, chatting between them as the excitement got the better of them. Aizawa stopped in the lounge and allowed them to inspect the large room while he explained things. "There is a class to each building and the building has been divided into two wings for boys and girls. However, the first floor is a common space. The dining area, baths, and laundry facilities can be found here."

Naruto weaved her way to the spacious kitchen while her classmates tried out the couches. She pulled out the drawers where new sparkling cooking utensils could be found. Nodding, Naruto tipped toe to open the cabinet and grinned when it opened. A rice-cooker as well as several other appliances could be found. She twisted when she felt a familiar pair of eyes watching her.

She beamed at Todoroki.

"Do my ears deceive me?" Mineta muttered to himself, drool dropping out of his mouth. "The baths and laundry areas are shared space?"

The boy froze when Todoroki loomed over him, mismatch eyes flashing with fury as the temperature in the room get colder. "Use your head. The baths are separated by gender and don't even think of trying to get a peek at any of the girls."

"Y-Yes sir!" Mineta squeaked.

Mina nudged Naruto's rib, caramel eyes twinkling with mischief at the action. Naruto avoided the knowing eyes of her friend, choosing to focus on her irritated boyfriend. Shouto stole a glance at her. He relaxed his shoulders, nodded and strolled towards Izuku.

The green-haired boy looked almost amused at the interaction. Izuku flashed her a smile but Naruto could see the hurt in his eyes. Was he angry with her for not telling him about her plans? She knew he deserved the right to know about it, to come along because he also felt guilty of not saving their friend. Naruto let out a sigh and looked out at the field.

She would explain her reasoning tomorrow.

* * *

Todoroki wiped the sweat off his forehead and grabbed his bottle of water, mismatch eyes fixed on the flooring. The tatami flooring seemed to be finally fixed. He spent nearly three hours not only fixing it in place, but also trying to figure out how to do it. The flooring and maybe even the way he fixed the walls might not be necessary, but it felt almost uncomfortable to stay in a place that was not even his house.

This was probably going to be the longest time that he didn't stay at the house.

 _Knock._

He tilted his head, eyebrows furrowed as he tried to figure out who would be visiting him. He doubt that the others would have finished by now. From what he observed, some of his classmates brought too many things with them. He shook his head and strolled towards the door, opening it slightly to see who would visit him.

The sight of a smiling Naruto made him realize that only she would be done this quickly. The fact she could make multiple copies of herself meant that she was probably the first person to finish unpacking her stuff, and getting things in order.

"Mind if I come in?" She asked, tilting her head.

He nodded, opening the door slightly wider and Naruto slipped in. He quickly closed the door, making sure to do it quietly as he did so. Todoroki had no problem if people knew about their relationship, but he also knew that most of the boys would make a big deal about their relationship. He rather preferred to keep their relationship private and between them, having no one gossiping about what happened between them.

If they asked whether they were dating or not, then he would be honest.

"Wow," Naruto whistled, blue eyes widened at the sight of his room. The awe in her eyes spoke volumes about how surprised she was about his room. He frowned, flickering his eyes from the futon to the floor. Was it that surprising? He just tried to do the room like the one at his home. "How did you completely remodelled this room?"

"With hard work."

Naruto's lips twitched at his answer and Todoroki knew it was taking all of Naruto's willpower not to laugh at his answer. Till now, he was trying to figure out why the others find humour in his responses. It really did take a lot of hard work to redo this room, especially when his mind would stray to the bet that Naruto and him made.

"I know it was hard work, but you must have spent a lot of time in decorating your room." Naruto observed. She glanced down at the floor, tapped her feet against it as if she was trying to see if the flooring was loose. He hoped not. He spent a whole hour trying to fix it to the floor.

"Five hours." Todoroki admitted.

"Was that why you didn't come down to get lunch?" He nodded and flushed a light shade of pink when his stomach rumbled. Naruto grinned, blue eyes twinkling with understanding, and pulled out a takeout box from her hands.

He felt his lips twitched when he saw that it was the soba.

"You ordered for me."

Naruto nodded. "You were too busy trying to fix the floors that you didn't hear Izuku asking for food. We were all debating about what to order for you from the Lunch Hero, so I told them that you would probably want some soba. You always seem to eat them during lunch."

Todoroki felt his lips twitched at the gesture made by his girlfriend. He distinctly remembered someone yelling at his door, but he had been so focused on getting the flooring fixed on place that he forgot to answer Midoriya. At least they were still willing to get him some food, despite his lack of answer.

"Did you eat?"

"I stuffed myself with ramen while you were too busy doing your room," Naruto reassured him. "You and Bakugou seemed to spend the most time trying to fix your rooms."

Todoroki raised his eyebrow. "Bakugou didn't come down?"

"Izuku ordered his food, but Kirishima was the one to bring it to him," Naruto confirmed. "I think Izuku feels slightly guilty of what happened and well Bakugou doesn't make things easy for him. I think he thinks that Bakugou told him to stay back, because he didn't want to be saved by him when really the bastard was worried about him."

Todoroki nodded. "I don't understand their relationship."

"It is complicated," Naruto agreed. "Almost reminds me of my relationship with Sasuke, except I knew Sasuke cared for me in some twisted way while…Izuku can't seem to see it just yet."

 _Sasuke was also in love with you._ Todoroki knew there was no point in reminding her of those words. Naruto now knew of the depth of feelings that her teammate and brother-figure had for her, which made her feel slightly guilty. He knew she blamed herself for not returning those feelings, for being blind about it. The breakdown during the exam told him this much.

He didn't want her to break down.

"If you try to bring _him_ back, are you going to return to Konoha?" Todoroki asked. It was better to change the subject before she entered a cloud of despair. Despite everything that her best friend put her through, Naruto still got upset at the mention of Sasuke's name.

Naruto nodded. "I have to apologize to the Old Hag for running away without any explanation, and I want to visit Konohamaru. I guess I also need to talk to Iruka-sensei since he might be worried sick about me. Oh and I need to talk to Teuchi-ojisan and ask him stories about my Dad. I guess I also need to go to Sunagakure to congratulate Gaara and try my hand on fixing that seal."

There was a smile on her face, telling him that his girlfriend was earnest about her words. She looked like she was going to be fine, but Todoroki had his doubts. He knew physically Naruto could handle herself. She was probably the strongest girl he knew, but it was her emotional and mental state that concerned him. There might be people that love her in her village, however there were also a lot of people that hurt her.

This was not going to be easy on her.

"I will come with you when you go there during the holidays," Todoroki informed her. Her blue eyes widened at his words and Naruto looked at him like she didn't know what to think of his actions. He might not be able to fight against shinobi, not if they were anything like Naruto and her teammate, but he wanted to be there for her. Naruto comforted him so it was fair he did the same. "I know it isn't going to be easy for you."

"I will be fine."

"You might have Konohamaru, Iruka, Hinata and the others but the villagers hurt you with their actions," he reminded her softly. "I want to be there for you."

Naruto chewed on her lips. "Do you truly think your father will allow you to go there? And what about your mother? You just recently begin repairing your relationship with her."

"Endeavour can go and screw himself," Naruto's lips twitched at his words. He curled his lips upwards too but the smile faded when he realized the seriousness of her words. Todoroki might not see his mother for a while yet his mother was safe in the hospital. She had support but Naruto wouldn't have support. "And I will just visit her every day before I go with you."

"Shouto, there are no cars or trains in Konoha or in the other Hidden Villages," she informed him. "You will be testing your stamina by running days on end."

"I can deal with it."

"Most of the restaurants in Konoha won't serve you once they know you are dating me," Naruto choked out. "You will be forced to eat ramen for the whole month that you are there."

Todoroki nodded. "I don't care about food or the people."

"There is no internet or anything over there," Blue eyes searched his mismatch eyes for any desire to back out. He just hardened his eyes. "So your phone won't work and the television channels over there sucks. I don't think it will be a good idea for you to meet Sasuke until I break the news to him. Actually are you really certain that you want to come with me? Because…"

He nodded and pressed his lips against her, drowning out all her excuses for why he probably should not come with her. _It is actually nice to know that I can kiss her without permission to stop her babbling._ He liked using words and other gestures to stop Naruto from talking but kissing her seemed like his favourite way of shutting her up.

Especially when Naruto flushed pink and looked at him with dazed eyes.

* * *

A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter.


	56. Chapter 56

A/N: I would like to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows as well as everyone that reviewed the last chapter.

* * *

"Morning Naru-chan."

Naruto grunted as Momo took a seat in front of her, putting her tray of food right in front of her. The girl arched her eyebrows, taken aback by the lack of cheerfulness from the girl. A greeting should be made but Naruto always hated being forced out of her bed. Instead of giving them another couple of days to get used to the change of environment, the school decided the hero students should be forced to start school earlier.

"What's wrong with Naru-chan?" Momo asked, glancing at Ochako and Jirou who flanked both sides of the whiskered girl.

"Did you forget that Naru-chan isn't a morning person?" Jirou reminded her. A small smile played on the rocker's girl face and the girl darted her eyes to the barely opened yoghurt. Naruto slid the yoghurt to her friend, understanding the silent question that she asked her. The girl brightened and began to dig into her second helping of yoghurt.

Naruto shook her head and stared at the sunny side eggs that the school provided for them. This was not the time for her to grumble about the fact they made them wake up so early in the morning. She needed to fuel herself up because not only were they being forced to go to class early; she also had to deal with her punishment. The faster she cleaned up everyone's mess, the faster she could go to the hospital.

She needed to tell Itachi about her final decision.

"So why didn't you tell us of your plans to rescue Bakugou?" Ochako asked, dropping her voice into a whisper as the boys filed in.

Naruto scrunched her eyebrows together, tilted her head to the right as she mulled over how to explain her reasoning to them. The explanation she gave to Aizawa-sensei should have been enough, but they figured out she had another explanation for not bringing them along or giving them a heads up. In a way there was another reason for her not to tell them even if it sounded silly in her head.

"I didn't want you guys to try and convince me not to do it and I didn't want anyone to get hurt," Naruto admitted, placing her spoon on the tray. Her friends stared at her with concern, flickering their eyes towards Kirishima and Todoroki. "I didn't even tell Shouto or Kirishima about my plans—they figure out that I knew how to locate him."

"And those people on television? Did you ask them to help you?" Mina asked.

Naruto shook her head. "Kakashi-sensei and Sakura-chan were in Yokohama because they thought U.A High was in Yokohama. They followed me to where Bakugou was being held and well I knew it was dangerous…so I asked Kirishima and Shouto to tell them to come and rescue my ass if it looks dangerous."

"Kakashi-sensei and Sakura-chan?" Momo's eyes widened. "Aren't they your teacher and teammate? How many people are after you?"

Naruto tilted her head and held her hand out as the names of her friends popped through her head. Team Seven made two. Team Eight made three which meant that was five so far. From what Kakashi-sensei told her, Team Ten was also here which meant that was eight and Neji's team was also here. So in total that was eleven people. Oh and Itachi was here with his partner, made it thirteen.

She honestly didn't believe for one minute that Sasuke's brother came here by himself.

"Twelve people that probably have no intention of killing me or fighting me," Mina and Ochako spit out their orange juice while Momo jerked her head at her. "One that wants to kill me so I might need to figure out where he is and try to avoid all the areas he visited."

"Does Aizawa-sensei know this? Do any of the teachers know about this?" Jirou demanded.

Naruto smiled at the concern shown by her friends. It warmed her to know they were concern about her safety, but she could probably take care of herself against most of the shinobi. Maybe not against Kisame but she could probably win if a trap was used against him. Although she probably was not allowed to kill him since Japan was quite strict about these kind of things. When the time comes, she would figure out how to fix her problems with the Akatsuki.

"Naruto?"

The whiskered girl sighed, "Aizawa-sensei knows only of the eleven people that is out to get me. He doesn't know Itachi is here and frankly I have no plans to tell him he is here."

"Why not? He wants you to go back to talk sense to his brother," Ochako reminded her. "What if he sees that you refused to do it and finds a way to make you…"

"He is very sick."

Spoons and forks crashed into the trays at her words and Naruto focused her attention on her own drink. It was wrong of her to speak Itachi's health out loud to them, not when she hadn't even told Sakura or Kakashi about the issue. If anyone deserved to know what was happening to the missing nin then it was them.

They also cared about Sasuke, and they probably would understand the importance of keeping Itachi alive. No matter how twisted the man was for manipulating his brother, Naruto would never deny him the chance of seeing his baby brother. She would never hide the truth from Sasuke because he deserved to know the truth. She knew it because if Eisuke or Kenji was sick then she would want to know.

"Naru-chan, I don't know what to say." Momo patted her in the back. "Are you okay? We know that you care for Itachi-san because of your friend but…this seems like it is more than personal for you."

Naruto pressed her lips together and clenched her hands into a fist. The first day of the Academy flashed before her eyes—the gentle smile on Itachi's face when he saw her. The tiny glimpse of a smile as she called him out as Sasuke's older brother, telling him that she never found him anything special. Her throat tightened when she recalled Weasel, the ANBU guard that gave her daisies and sweet notes to cheer her up.

In her heart, Naruto knew the kind Weasel of her childhood was the man on that hospital bed. She never asked him nor did she try to, but his scent was so familiar to her. There was no point for her to question him, not when she knew the truth. For the kind ANBU guard that took care of her, Naruto would do everything to show how grateful she was for him. The flowers were just one way for her to show it.

It was her way to tell him that she knew who he was.

"He used to watch over me," Naruto admitted. "He isn't very good in showing his emotions, but I remember how he tried to find some way to comfort me in my lonely days—especially when I cried like a baby. I don't think he knows that I know but his scent hasn't changed one bit."

It had been a haze when he confronted her the first time with Jiraiya. She had been taken by surprise to see someone who resembled Sasuke but the more time she spent in his presence, the more familiar his scent became to her. She only knew of one other person with his scent, and that person had been kind Weasel.

She now knew who were her two constant bodyguards in those lonely days in the orphanage and the apartment.

"Todoroki-kun's rival isn't Sasuke—it is his brother!" Mina declared, nodding her head. Naruto jerked her head, opening her mouth to correct her classmate presumption only to close it when she saw the mischievous twinkle in her eyes. She shook her head and let out a laugh, earning raised eyebrows from the boys at the other table.

She just flashed them a smile and her eyes lingered on Shouto's concern eyes. Despite the distance between them, it seemed like Todoroki would always worry about her and the state of her mental health. It was a pity, she could not tell him that the girls were debating about who might be his love rival for her heart. It was silly since there was only one person who had her heart.

No one made her feel this way before.

"You just like to make a love triangle out of everything, don't you Mina-chan?" Momo observed, shaking her head at their friend. "Just a month ago you thought Todoroki-kun had a rival in Bakugou when it came to Naru-chan."

"That isn't true," Mina defended herself. "I also ship Naru-chan with Midoriya."

Ochako choked at those words and Naruto quietly slapped the girl in the back, blue eyes twinkling in mischief at the slight jealously in her friend's eyes. The girl flushed pink and tried to say to her about how the food must have gone at the wrong tube with those words. Naruto just let out a husky laugh, leaned closer to her friend's ears and eyed their green-haired classmate.

She knew jealously when she saw it. Sakura and the other girls used to be jealous of how much Sasuke paid attention to her, always jumping to conclusions about her actions. Perhaps if she met Shouto earlier, then she could have told them that she liked him. When she thought about it, she should have tried to find a buffer to stop the girls from jumping to conclusion.

Neji would have been the best buffer, if it wasn't for the fact he used to be an asshole to Hinata-chan.

"Don't worry Ochako-chan—I have only eyes for Shouto," Ochako flushed pink and waved her hands at her. Naruto smiled even wider. "But I should tell you that Izuku is really built despite what his clothes tell you."

"W-What?" Ochako choked out.

Blue eyes twinkled. "Well I might have snuck a peak during the Training Camp and well…dear little Deku has a six-pack."

Her friend flushed an even brighter shade of pink and sneaked a glance at their oblivious classmate. Izuku seemed to be focused on talking to Shouto, unaware of the exchange between the two girls. Shouto turned his attention on them, eyebrows raised at the two girls. Ochako squeaked and looked away while Naruto just grinned at him.

She really needed to find new ways to tease their classmate.

* * *

The classroom's chatter died down as soon as Aizawa-sensei strolled in, his stern eyes fixated on Naruto and the other two students who broke the rules. Naruto only straightened her back, her blue eyes shining with some guilt for her actions on that day. It was to be expected the man reminded the three students of how they broke his trust by trying to rescue their classmate without informing him or the other adults. Her lips twitched at the concern look from Shouto, who seemed ready to voice out his concerns later when they go to their respective hospitals.

"I believed I mentioned this yesterday, but for now, Class 1A of the hero course will be focusing on getting their provisional licenses," Aizawa informed them. The man had both hands on either side of the podium, his back leaned forward as his eyes fixated on all of them.

" _Yes, sir!"_

"A hero license bears with it the great responsibility of _human life_ ," he emphasised those two words as he directed his eyes at Naruto. The girl stiffened, understanding the hidden message behind his words. "Of course, the exam to receive one is very difficult. Even the provisional license has only a 50% passing rate each year."

Mineta sweated at those words. "Just the provisional license is that hard?"

Aizawa's eyes sharpened at those words, causing a couple of the students to gulp at what might be his next words to them. "That's why today, we will have each of you come up with at least two ultimate moves."

The door to their classroom slid open just as Aizawa finished his speech and Midnight, Cementoss and Ectoplasm strolled through, their expressions both stern and excited for what was to come. Midnight waved her hand, taking her spot beside Aizawa while the other two teachers flanked either sides of their homeroom teacher.

 _Superhero moves? Do my seals count? Because I already had two._ Naruto fiddled with her pencil as she sketched the accidental seal she created and the one she actually intended to create. _But I might need to think of another seal when it comes to Sasuke._ She grimaced. There was no telling what Orochimaru put him through but it was definitely nothing good.

The chances of not fighting him and convincing him with just words were very slim.

Words never seemed to get through to him which meant she probably needed to fight dirty.

"It's like a real school thing and yet—" Mina and Kaminari yelled.

"—It's like a super normal hero thing!" Kirishima and Sero finished, standing up and pumping their fists into the air. Naruto poked her ears and wrinkled her nose at the loudness of her two classmates. The four teens smiled apologetically at the girl, their eyes shining with regret at their actions.

Naruto just shook her head and grinned.

"Ultimate! This means that this move will give you a sure win!" Ectoplasm began, eyes fixed on the remaining students.

Cementoss continued. "It is a move so ingrained into your body that others cannot copy it. To fight in a battle means seeing how much you can force what you're good at on your opponent."

 _Does the Rasengan count? Or any of the jutsu that I know? It is hard to create a jutsu that no one can copy and seals can be copied if one figures out the right layout and the right character._ Naruto chewed on her lips, scrunched her eyebrows together as she twirled her pencil around. This probably meant another round of sleepless nights and trying to find a good place to train at night.

There was no way Aizawa would allow her to spend several nights at Kenji's house to master her seals.

Todoroki sighed and poked Naruto in the ribs, earning furrowed eyebrows and a tilted head from the girl. He discretely pointed at Midnight and the other teachers who seemed to be very enthusatic about what they should be doing and the importance of their moves. She sighed, understanding the silent message from her boyfriend.

"…Your moves will represent you," Midnight smiled and pushed her glasses downwards. "These days it is rare to find pro heroes without any ultimate moves—those without them can be considered an endangered species."

Aizawa grunted and crossed his arms. "We will tell you more as we go along. We want to proceed logically. Change into your costumes and meet in Gym Gamma."

* * *

Gamma Gym, also known as the Training Dining Land (TDL for short) was probably one of the biggest gyms Naruto had ever seen. It might be no training ground but it was definitely spacious enough for everyone to do their own thing as they tried to think of new moves. New moves that they might need in order to get their license to do hero work.

Cementoss turned and stared at the gathered students in front of him. "I came up with the idea for these facilities." He clicked his feet together and turned away from them. He knelt down and placed his hands on the ground, rising the ground slightly. "Terrain and other things can be prepared specifically for each student. That's what the dining part refers to."

Naruto leaned towards Momo. "Make me think more about food than training."

"It does give that impression," Momo agreed.

"Please allow me to ask a question!" Iida's hand shot up into the air. "Why must we have ultimate moves for our provisional licensing exams? Please tell me your reasoning!"

 _He's as passionate as ever._ Naruto's lips curled upwards as Aizawa sighed at the boy's enthusiasm. You would think after a couple of days of rest that her classmate would have eased up. Instead, he just proved that even a holiday would never stop him from asking questions. She shook her head and darted her eyes towards Todoroki, who tilted his head at their teachers.

He flickered his eyes at her, a tiny smile on his lips before tearing his eyes away from her.

Momo smiled and stared at her with knowing eyes but Naruto just smiled, blue eyes darting anywhere but the twinkling black eyes of her friend. Just one look in her eyes and the whole thing was over. There was just no way she would allow the whole class to know until the newness of this relationship faded. It would bring too much teasing and Naruto knew she was going to get an earful when she tells Hinata later.

It would only be fair after the teasing she gave about Kiba.

"I'll tell you everything in order," Aizawa sighed. "The job of a hero is to save people from danger, like crimes, accidents, natural disasters, and man-made disasters. The exam to become one naturally looks at how well you are able to do that. Your ability to gather information, make decisions, move, and fight, in addition to your ability to communicate, draw people to you, and lead."

 _This is starting to sound more like the speech Iruka-sensei gave me when we finished the second phase of the Chunin Exams._ Naruto grimaced as she recalled the fact Hinata and the others had became Chunnins while she was stuck as a genin. _At least the bastard is in the same boat as me._ It was still a consolation prize if you asked her.

White cloth shot towards her, yanked her head upwards and Naruto was faced at the sight of an irritated Aizawa looking at her. She smiled sheepishly, earning an eyeroll from her teacher. "Pay attention, Uzumaki. Now as I was saying every year, a different test is used to look at how well you are able to do those things."

Midnight stepped forward and held up her finger. "Of those, your ability to fight is especially important to your futures as heroes. If you are prepared, you won't have to worry. Whether or not you have, an ultimate move will greatly affect whether or not you pass.

The terrain around them began to change as Cementoss added on. "Not being influenced by circumstances and being able to act consistently will make you a great asset on the front lines." He focused his eyes on Naruto. "Your ultimate moves doesn't need to be of the offensive type."

"An example might be Iida's Recipro Burst," Ectoplasm interjected. "The temporary burst of speed is enough of a threat to be worth calling an ultimate move."

Iida placed his hand against his chest and straightened his back with pride. "So that's good enough to be called an ultimate move?"

"I see…so we need to find something that allows us to feel like: as long as I do this, I have the advantage—I can win, is that correct?" Satou asked.

Midnight winked. "Exactly."

 _So my seals and Rasengan would be considered my moves then._ Naruto tilted her head and stared down at her hands. There were still many ways in which the Rasengan could be improved. If she could finally figure out how to incorporate wind towards the Rasengan then it might become deadly, just deadly enough for everyone to know that she meant business.

She slumped her shoulders. Until now she struggled to figure out how to move pass the wind chakra exercise that Jiraiya had given her to do. Kenji hadn't been of any help since her relative had an affinity with lightening and water. Eisuke was similar with having only a natural affinity with lightening. Ero-Sennin had an affinity with fire.

This was probably going to be the longest day for her.

* * *

"Can we talk, Naruto?"

It was the end of the day which meant she was done cleaning up the mess made by their classmates, who unsurprisingly took advantage of the fact that the three students were being punished for their misconduct. Honestly the amount of dirty plates she had been forced to clean made her reconsider her back-up plan of working in the cafe full-time.

Izuku stood in front of the school gates, green eyes burning in determination as the blonde slipped her hands into her pockets. Todoroki stood by her side, mismatch eyes flickering from her to their friend as if silently asking them if they wanted to be alone. Naruto sighed, gestured for Izuku to follow her and turned to her concern boyfriend.

"You should hurry up, Shouto." She flashed a tiny smile at him and then wrapped her slim arms around Izuku's broad shoulders. "Your Mum is probably waiting for you."

"Were the two of you going to meet his mother?" Izuku squeaked. He darted his eyes at the two teens, his eyes silently asking them if they weren't certain that they were taking things too fast.

Naruto jerked her head and furiously shook her head. Her cheeks burned at the question while she avoided Todoroki's raised eyebrows at her behaviour. It was not like she didn't want to meet his mother, she wanted to meet the woman that influence her son. It was just that she was concern that maybe the woman might not like her. As much as she adored Todoroki, her boyfriend was a rich boy.

She didn't have the manners that most rich parents preferred and oh god, what if the woman thought she was with her son because of money? It might be all in her head but the blonde couldn't help think these things. Even now, she recalled how some of the girls accused her of trying to win Sasuke's heart because she wanted money. Thank goodness, Sakura and Ino weren't those girls as they even think she wasn't that shallow.

"I mean don't get me wrong since I want to meet Shouto's Mum," Naruto rubbed the back of her neck as she felt the nerves get the better of her. "But it is really too soon for me to meet his mother. I mean we have only been together for a week now, which is just too soon for his mother to meet me. In fact she probably might not want to meet me now…she might want to test me something and…"

Todoroki tugged her shirt and the blonde took the silent message that she was babbling again. She flushed pink, avoiding her boyfriend's amused eyes. Izuku flickered his eyes between the two teens, eyes softening at the interaction between them. It felt good to know she didn't even have to hide this relationship from her friend. Out of everyone in their class, Izuku seemed to be the less judgemental person when it came to their relationship.

"My mum will like you even if you babble like this," Todoroki said confidently.

The whiskered girl smiled at the quiet confidence that her boyfriend had about his mother. He might be confident his mother might like her but she wasn't as confident as him. His mother might not know about the beast inside of her but there was always a possibility she might find something that she didn't like her. Like maybe her manners because Todoroki had better manner than her.

She might not even like the way she dressed or the way she talked.

Naruto furiously shook her head and reminded herself that this was not the time to worry about these things. Their relationship was still new and fragile, which meant they were going to take things slow. She didn't have to worry about his mother just yet or even about his sister. The two of them were going to take their time with this relationship.

She just beamed at Todoroki and waved her goodbyes to him, wishing not for the first time that their other classmates weren't the type to gossip about relationships. Her eyes linger on his fading back, which earned a tiny smile from the green-haired boy. The whiskered girl tore her eyes away, offering a sheepish smile to her friend.

"You and Todoroki-kun are really good in hiding your relationship from everyone," Izuku commented. "The both of you are still acting the same, the only difference that the two of you are more opened to showing your affections in private."

Naruto smiled. "We have to or else we will be dealing with the constant questioning from everyone. Most of the girls tease me about my feelings when it comes to Shouto so imagine how they will react once they know we are dating."

"I used to think that you and Kacchan would date during middle school," Izuku admitted. Naruto jerked her head and raised her eyebrows at him. The boy avoided her eyes, keeping it fixated on the ground. "Well he was the only one that could make you angry and he seems to listen to you. Plus he acted differently around you."

"Probably because I didn't worship the ground he walked on," Naruto guessed. The two teens walked out of the gates, their eyes fixated on the empty road ahead. "But he doesn't like me in that way and I never like him in that way. I guess we were rivals in a way since I did try and challenge him for the top spot in school."

Izuku nodded and turned to her. His green eyes shone with so much pain that Naruto began to feel guilty for not telling him about her plans. She should have told him. Out of everyone in their class he was probably the one person that wanted to save their classmate the most, but his arms had been badly broken. It would be on her if anything happened to his hands.

"Why didn't you tell me? You of all people should have understand how guilty I felt for not bringing Kacchan back." Green eyes pleaded with her to explain herself, to help him understand why she decided not to include him in with their plan. "Why didn't you decide to include me?"

Naruto run her hand through her hairs. "Because what if I fail to bring him back? Would you have been able to recover losing him a second time? You were very messed up in the hospital Izuku and I didn't want you to be disappointed if it fails. I barely agreed to let Shouto or Kirishima come, and they can control their Quirks."

"You thought I was a liability."

The whiskered girl furiously shook her head. "I was more concern of whether or not you will break your arms again. Do you think I want to ruin your chances of becoming a Hero? You worked so hard to get here and for me to let you throw it all away…I couldn't do it."

"It should have been my choice."

"I was doing it to protect you," Naruto repeated. "And do you really think Bakugou would have easily agreed to come with me if he knew you came with me? You know Explosive Head better than me, would he have accepted being saved if he knew you came along?"

The lack of reply told Naruto that Izuku knew as well as she did that Bakugou would have refused to come. She didn't know whether it was his pride or if it was because the boy felt like it was his duty to protect him. Naruto knew from observing the two boys that Bakugou did care about Izuku in his own way. Maybe he refused to admit it or show it but she could see behind those cruel words, was someone that still care for his childhood friend.

Although it would never make up for the suggested suicide.

"My hands couldn't reach him," Izuku choked. "But your hands did."

Naruto's eyes softened. "My hands only reach him because the ass knew I was his best chance of escaping out of that hellhole. I think if there was another option then he would take it, because being rescued by me also must have annoyed the crap out of him. Explosive Head always wants to be first and me helping him…it meant he felt like he was weak."

"But he isn't weak."

"We know that but Bakugou doesn't see it that way," Naruto pressed her lips into a thin line. "The fact that you are catching up to him and that you suddenly got a Quirk…I think it destroyed the way he sees the world. In his eyes, you were always going to be that weakling he can boss around and take for granted and now you are not. I think he will get better if the two of you have a talk about it…or fight it out."

Green eyes widened at her words. "What?"

"Your friendship with Bakugou is different from my friendship with Sasuke." They stopped in front of the bus stop that would take her to the train station, which would lead to her to the hospital that Itachi was currently staying at. She turned to her classmate. "But there is one thing similar about our bonds—words would never be enough to get through with them. Fighting them and knocking some sense into their brain is."

"A year ago, you would never tell me to fight him," Izuku pointed out.

Naruto curled her lips into a smile. "That's because a year ago you weren't training your ass off and you didn't even have a Quirk. I think if you finally managed to control your Quirk then maybe you can match Bakugou."

"Do you really think fighting him is the only way to get through to him?"

"You're his best friend, you tell me because I have some idea on how to get through my two best friends," Naruto offered him a smile. "If you don't think a good old fashion fight is needed to get through with him then think of another way to knock some sense into him."

There were always better ways but Naruto didn't know Bakugou as well as Izuku did.

Maybe she needed to change that.

* * *

A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter.


	57. Chapter 57

A/N: I would like to thank everyone that added this story to their favourite and follows. I have decided to rewrite the last couple of chapters because there were certain things about the chapters that I didn't like. I'm very sorry for this inconvenience.

* * *

"How old were you when you graduated from your ninja school, Uchiha-san?"

Itachi raised his eyebrows at the sudden question from Tomoko. It had been two days since the woman began her random facts of the day, not once he complied with her exchange. No matter how interesting the facts were, Itachi refused to allow the woman to get to know him. The more she get to know him, the more likely the woman was to figure out the reason he didn't want to live.

Tomoko sighed and put down the scans on the table beside him. "I am really curious to know how old you must have been to graduate from school—the way you live your life is different from the way the new generation of Uzumakis lived."

Itachi regarded the woman, black eyes searching for any signs of manipulation or any other motive. In the two days in this hospital, he observed Tomoko was not the kind to divulge information without expecting something in return. She informed him of her favourite colours and her ambitions, but not once did she ever mention anything about the clan.

"Almost all of the first-generation Uzumaki born in Japan graduated from high school at eighteen, or in a few cases like mine—sixteen," Tomoko pressed on. "Dad told us that he graduated from school at the age of nine and he was immediately deployed for missions…was it the same for you?"

Black eyes turned completely blank as amber eyes pierced his. The sincerity and curiosity in those amber eyes made him want to squirm. Not once in his short life did he ever had the urge to run away from a civilian. Then again most civilians weren't very curious about his life. They never asked him personal questions like this; most of them had been interested about his relationship.

It was perhaps the only reason he was willing to answer her question.

"I was seven."

Amber eyes widened at his words but surprisingly enough Itachi saw no awe in her eyes. The adults in Konoha always looked at him like he was someone amazing, his clans members always praised him for his young age. This girl just stared at him with sadness as if knowing just how much of a burden it must have been for him. In a strange way, he felt some comfort with the knowledge.

Izumi used to praise him for it while Shishui made jokes about it, but Tomoko looked at him with sadness.

"It must have been tough on you," Tomoko commented lightly. Her tone might have been light but hints of sadness bled into her tone. "Your parents must have told you to stop acting like a child and act more like an adult, because that headband represents the fact that you are an adult."

 _I never acted like a child._ Itachi stopped himself from spilling those words to the young woman. His mother tried so hard for him to have some child-like qualities from sending him to play at Shishui's house to sending him over to his godmother. Aunt Kushina always tried to install the prankster values in him, but Itachi could never understand the joy that both Naruto and Kushina had for the art.

"It was fine as long as my brother could act his age," Itachi finally said.

Tomoko observed him. "But did it make you happy? Did it ever upset you that your brother could enjoy his innocent childhood a little bit more longer than you ever did?"

 _I might not have been happy but I wanted Sasuke to bask in his innocence a little bit longer._ He knew if things had been different between them, then he would have made sure that Sasuke would have done all things a boy his age should have done. His brother wouldn't have been so focused on training instead he might have been like Shishui. His cousin used to have a different girl every week.

His father wasn't impressed with it but his mother found some humour in it.

"My happiness doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things." Itachi focused his attention on the gray-haired woman, lips pressed into a thin line as Tomoko regarded him. Sadness shone through those amber-eyes almost making Itachi's lips twitched.

Why should she look at him with those sad eyes? Itachi knew he didn't deserve to have any happiness. It might have been Danzo's orders but he still chose to carry out the massacre. He chose to make his brother an orphan for the greater good and while he didn't regret his action when it came to the village. Itachi did regret of how much pain and suffering his baby brother went through because of him.

"Everyone deserves to be happy especially people like you and the other ninjas from the Elemental Countries," Tomoko informed him. "It is the best gift that a person can get after enduring through so much hardship."

Itachi pressed his lips into a thin line. "Do you think a Villain deserves to be happy too?"

The gray-haired woman pressed her lips into a thin line, amber eyes staring distantly at the television screen. No words came out of her mouth but the overwhelming sadness coming out of her eyes told Itachi everything. Even though Villains did terrible things, this doctor held a belief that even they deserved to have some form of happiness.

It was strange when he thought about it.

"It is circumstances that makes people become villains," Tomoko grimaced. "Sometimes those villains have abusive assholes as fathers, beating the shit out of their mother and making their whole family scared. They know they can't go to the authority or the newspaper because that parent has a lot of money and influence. Instead they think of taking it into their own hands…tell me wouldn't that person deserve to be happy?"

The door to his hospital room slid open and Naruto waltz into his room, tan hands carrying another bundle of yellow daises. The teenage girl stopped, stared at the two teens and Itachi dimly realized that Uzumaki-sensei was now actually leaning very close to them. A small smile played on Naruto's lips, reminding Itachi of the time when Naruto called him Shishui's girlfriend.

His former charge always had the habit of jumping to conclusions.

"Don't the two of you look so friendly," Naruto said cheerfully, placing the bundle of daises into his vase. Tomoko blinked, stared at him for a couple of seconds before scrambling away from him. Her pale cheeks flushed a light shade of pink as Naruto let out a boastful laugh.

The laugh died down when Naruto spotted several seals placed on the windows and the door. The teen tilted her head, knitted her eyebrows together and observed the seals before swirling her head at him. Blue eyes shone with so much hurt that Itachi felt his heart clenched at the pain he caused for the girl.

"Tomoko, what did Itachi do for you to place a couple of barrier seals on the window and an alarm seal on the door?"

Tomoko sighed. "Kenji-sama believes that Itachi would try to run away from the hospital room the moment I turned my head away. Since it would look very weird for him to put so many guards around Itachi, he decided it would be better off to put a seal that alerts the whole hospital that he run away from his room."

Pink lips pressed into a thin line at her words and blue eyes stilted at him, demanding for him to explain himself to her. For just one brief second Itachi was reminded of his mother and Kushina whenever they found out that he had been the one to steal the pocky from the fridge.

"Really Itachi?" Naruto demanded. "How can Tomoko help you get better if you run away from the hospital?"

"Since you have come to visit Uchiha-san, I will take it as my cue to leave and do my rounds," Tomoko announced, drawing their attention to her. She offered them a small smile and Itachi nodded, allowing himself to show some gratefulness to this young woman.

She saved him from hearing another person scold him for his bad health. Kisame made it very clear to him about how much it annoyed him to know he wasn't taking the proper precautions with his health, and even threatened to send him to this world's hospital if he didn't stopped coughing.

"What brings you here, Naruto-san?" Itachi questioned.

Naruto tried to give him the same innocent smile that she used to give the Hokage whenever she wanted to wiggle her way out of trouble. Just like the Third Hokage, Itachi was not fooled by her smile. After two years of watching the girl, he came to be immune to her tricks of getting herself out of trouble. Perhaps if this was the first time she used the technique then maybe he might drop it.

Now all he could do was stare at her.

"I really do want to visit you Itachi," Naruto said sincerely. "But you are right, I do have another reason for coming here."

He waited for the girl to elaborate but instead she stared out at the window. Did she wish to tell him that she really have no plans to bring Sasuke back to Konoha? Because he understood her wishes and while it pained him, he would find another way to convince her. He would even use his Sharingan if he must because telling Sasuke the truth was not an option.

If he informed his brother about what happened that night then the chances of Sasuke killing him would be very slim. There was a high chance that he would seek revenge against Konoha for what they did to their clan.

"My original plan was to convince you to tell Sasuke the truth and make him understand why you want him to stay in Konoha," Naruto focused her blue eyes on him. "I just wanted to be selfish, Itachi because I never felt happy in Konoha. Everyone I have met so far in Japan treated me with so much kindness and warmth that I just can't picture myself going back there. You of all people know how much this means to me!"

Itachi made no comment on her words. He did know of the days when Naruto nearly went crazy from the loneliness. It was why he tried to encourage his brother to get closer to Naruto, to become her friend. While Naruto was isolated from her peers, his brother chose to isolate himself from the world around him. He thought by encouraging his brother's crush on Naruto that the boy would ease her loneliness.

Yet his brother had been too shy to do it and afraid that their father would disapprove of the action.

"And now?"

"I will bring Sasuke back," Naruto announced. She interlocked her fingers together, her blue eyes fixed on his dark eyes as if trying to reassure him that she was doing this out of her free will. He honestly preferred if the girl was doing this out of free will, because it would be exhausting to put her through a genjutsu to make her bring him back. "But I will bring him back when the term is done."

"Thank you."

"I'm doing this not only because Sasuke is my best friend," Naruto admitted. "I'm also doing this because you were the ANBU guard that cheered me up when the villagers were being mean to me. You were one of the few guards that saw me as a person, who looked past my status and saw that I was just a little girl."

Itachi knew of the two other guards that Naruto was talking about. Kakashi was never allowed to make contact with Naruto, but the man did try to show the girl some form of care and love in his own way. Shishui had been the other guard, always finding amusement from the pranks that Naruto made. At one point his best-friend had even dropped a couple of chocolate as a way to encourage the girl to continue pranking.

"When I think about it, Itachi—you are my hero." Itachi raised his eyebrow and the girl beamed. "I admire the Fourth, but he is my idol, someone I wanted to aspire to be. I admire the Fourth for what he did and I wish to be stronger than he ever was, but he didn't save me. I might have become the very monster that the villagers thought I was if you hadn't been so kind to me."

' _Naru-chan seems to be fond of you, Weasel since she finally admitted to me that she had been intentionally escaping the ANBU guards. I think she only told me the truth because she wanted to beg for you to keep guarding her.'_

It almost touched his heart to know that despite everything he did, Naruto still cared for him.

* * *

"So where did you and Todoroki go? Did the two of you go on a date?"

Naruto smiled as Mina and Ochako played with the Bongo drums in Jirou's room. Toru plucked the strings of the guitar, giggling as Jirou tried to explain how to play the instrument properly. All the girls decided that after a rough day of training that they would try to do something fun to get their mind off things, and somehow they all came to agreement to try to learn some music with Jirou.

"Shouto went to visit his mother and I went to visit Itachi," Naruto tapped the drumsticks against the drums, ignoring the pout from Mina. Her lips curled into a frown as she recalled the state of her former ANBU guard. The man looked better than on the day of their meeting, but Naruto still didn't know if he was out of the danger zone. Tomoko had not even come back even when she left Itachi's room, not giving her the chance of questioning her.

"And here I thought that you confessed your feelings to him," Mina pouted as Naruto flushed a light shade of pink. "I don't understand why you keep putting it off."

Naruto could only smile tightly, hoping and praying that her eyes would not betray her feelings. It would ruin her plans of teasing the hell out of Shouto if she revealed that Shouto confessed to her, or that they were dating. The teasing would never end when they told them the truth, or when they figured it out.

"What if he doesn't like me?" That had been her excuse for not confessing earlier because Naruto never knew whether Shouto liked her as a friend, or liked her in the same way a boy liked a girl. The thought of being rejected by him had terrified her, which was why she kept putting it off.

"Everyone can see that Todoroki likes you," Hagakure declared. "You are the only reason why he defends us from Mineta, and he always seems to be comforting you—he doesn't try to comfort us like he comforts you."

"I think I even caught him staring at your ass and chest," Mina added, and she grinned when Naruto flushed pink at those observations. Mina rubbed her chin, a mischievous glint in her eyes and Naruto feared for her life what her friend was going to say next. "Maybe we should just lock the two of you into a closet and get him to confess his feelings for you then."

"That is a crude way of getting Todoroki-kun to confess his feelings for Naru-chan," Momo pointed out. Ochako and Tsuyu nodded in agreement while Naruto just wished someone to bury her now. Was the bet even worth this? And why was she embarrass? She was a fully trained kunoichi that had been trained in the art of seduction. Although she never actually seduced anyone before.

She needed to find them another target.

"Why do we keep talking about my love life? What about Jirou-chan?" Her friends jerked their heads at her, looking almost put out by the fact that she brought them into the middle of this. Naruto almost felt guilty, but if she wanted to win the bet then she would throw anyone under the bus. "Jirou-chan seems to be awfully close with Kaminari."

"We are only seat partners!" Jirou denied, flushing a light shade of pink and avoided everyone's eyes. Mina crackled at this new knowledge, earning a sigh of relief from both Ochako and Naruto. _I'm sorry Jirou-chan but I want someone else to be teased today._ It was going to be terrible for her when she tells Hinata-chan about her relationship tomorrow. Her friend might actually try to pay her back for all those years that Naruto spent teasing her and Kiba.

"You love him!" Mina declared, clapping her hands together. "Your flush cheeks says it all! When did it all started?"

"I will get you back for this, Naru-chan! And I'm not answering that!" Jirou cried as Mina continued to pester the girl to spill everything about her crush on Kaminari. Most of the other girls giggled but only Momo looked thoughtful. The black-haired girl stared at Naruto, eyebrows raised at the way she deflected the teasing from their classmates.

Naruto avoided looking at Momo's curious eyes and focused on tapping the drumsticks against the drums. Was it strange she was starting to enjoy these kinds of conversations? As a little girl, she always looked down at these kinds of talks because a person should be focused on her career path. It had been easy to tease Hinata about her crush since her friend understood that Naruto didn't have anyone she liked.

Naruto could never initiate these kinds of talks with Sakura when they were in the same team, because her teammate always presumed facts about her own feelings. Sasuke loves her but it never meant that she return those feelings for him. Challenging Sasuke to fights had been her way of getting attention. The way she used to pester Sakura to hang out was because at one point the girl had played with her in the playground.

It only changed when her mother found out about it and insisted that they stopped playing together.

"What are you thinking about, Naru-chan? You seemed happy just a few minute ago." Momo observed, black eyes fixed on Jirou and Mina. Naruto pressed her lips into a thin line, wondering if she should tell her friend about her plans with Sakura. If she told Momo or even the others about her plans then they would insist on coming with her. As much as Naruto loves her friends, this was something that she had to do by herself.

So she would have to go with the half-truth.

"I never got teased about crushes," Naruto admitted. "Most of the girls hated me because they saw Sasuke had a crush on me, and I was standing in their way of achieving his love. I teased Hinata-chan about her feelings for Dog Breath but Hinata-chan never got to do it for me. I never had any feelings for any boy except Shouto."

"There had been no one that you liked at all? Not even in Middle School?" Momo questioned.

 _How could I have like anyone when none of the boys used to come close to me? Or when I felt nothing at all?_ There had been some boys in Middle School that always asked to eat with her but they did it out of kindness. Some of the girls in her Middle School liked Bakugou, which was understandable to Naruto.

Bakugou was good-looking, smart and well-off when compared to the rest of their classmates in Middle School but Naruto could never see what drew them to him. Perhaps it was the fact their personalities were similar at times, or maybe it was because they looked similar to each other. Whatever the case, Naruto found that she only liked Bakugou as a friend…maybe even as an annoying older brother.

"I was an absolute mess in middle school," Naruto explained. And I was friends with most of the boys in the Academy. Kiba was Hinanta-chan's crush, which meant that he was off-limits. Shino was just too quiet for me and Choji was just a big teddy bear. Shikamaru was nice and despite being a lazy asshole, he is smart. I mean he is good-looking but…"

"You never develop feelings for him," Momo finished.

"I tried so hard to understand how the other girls could develop crushes," Naruto mused. "There had been boys just as cute as Sasuke but I couldn't feel anything for them. I tried so hard but nothing. There was no adoration or desire for them to notice me as a girl—all I cared about was becoming Hokage. I wanted to be the strongest Kunoichi in the world."

"What are you two talking about?" Hagakure asked, drawing everyone's attention on the two girls. Everyone turned their attention on them, their eyes flashing with curiosity. Jirou stared at Naruto, her eyes silently pleading for her to say something and get everyone's attention away from her.

Naruto felt like being merciful to her friend.

"We were talking about how Shouto is the first boy that I really liked," Naruto admitted, earning a sigh of relief from Jirou. Mina and Hagakure jerked their heads at this knowledge, while Ochako stared at her with wide-eyes. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I thought since you were a kunoichi that you would have a lot of experiences with men since well kunoichi must do seduction missions and all that shit! I mean that is what those movies portray you guys as like," Mina explained, slithering her arms around Naruto's slim shoulders. Naruto raised her eyebrows and jerked her head at her other friends. The other girls nodded, avoiding her eyes as if they were ashamed to admit they had the same thoughts.

Naruto sighed. "We are taught how to seduce but it doesn't mean we develop feelings for the client or target! That's completely unprofessional! And just because I'm a kunoichi, doesn't mean we are automatically sent for those missions. Also, what does that have to do with relationships?"

"Well we thought that you know when a guy likes you but apparently you are just as dumb as us," Mina declared happily. Her eyes twinkled mischievously. "So you definitely never went undercover, dressed in something…"

"No!" Naruto screeched, earning giggles from the other girls. "Those kinds of missions are B-rank and above—I think. The most badass thing I ever did in a mission was trying to rescue Kakashi-sensei from Zabuza and even then I had Sasuke to help me. I might tease but I have never…"

"So you can't give any tips for Jirou on how to _seduce_ Kaminari?"

"Mina!"

"I'm kidding!"

Naruto burst out laughing and stared at her friends, wondering not for the first time about how lucky she was to have them as friends. She really did come a long way from the depressed girl that left Konoha, because Naruto doubted she would ever act like this if she stayed there. She doubted she would ever as happy as she was here. Even though they teased her, she knew that it was their way of showing they cared for her.

It was really going to pain her to leave them alone during the holidays, but she would make it up to them in the coming semester.

She would treasure her time with them.

* * *

Aizawa nodded as he watched his students worked out on what they wanted to do for their ultimate move. Almost all the students had some idea on what could they do to make their ultimate move. Midoriya was focused on his legs, finally getting into his head that the use of his hands would only harm him. Bakugou had already shown that he created several variations of his ultimate move. Hagakure was trying to bend light while Ochako attempted to find a way to use her Quirk with her martial arts.

The only student that seemed to be struggling with making an ultimate move was surprisingly Uzumaki. In the past few months of teaching the girl, he had seen that the kunoichi constantly used her shadow clones in a number of different ways and had created seals that any hero would kill to use. It made him wonder about what was making the girl struggle.

"You seem to be the only one really struggling to make an ultimate move, Uzumaki." Naruto looked away from the leaf and stared at him with wide blue eyes. She smiled sheepishly, earning a sigh from Aizawa. If there was any improvement from the last few months, it was that Uzumaki was opening herself up to people and freely showing her real emotions. "Explain."

"I'm trying to figure out how my wind chakra works," Naruto explained. "I was thinking that if I mastered it then I will be able to combine it with the Rasengan."

Aizawa nodded. "Why do you want to combine it with the Rasengan? What is wrong with the Rasengan by itself?"

Naruto smiled and channelled her chakra to the palm of her hand, forming that small blue sphere of energy. He tilted his head, trying to understand what was wrong with her technique. From his observations in the training camp, Aizawa found that the jutsu was very powerful. It had been able to destroy a few of Pixie Bob's monsters, but the girl constantly could not throw the ball of energy.

It was quite problematic if she was to face someone that was a long range fighter.

"You wish to put wind chakra in order for you to throw it?"

"Huh? I never thought about trying to throw the Rasengan," Naruto muttered. She tilted her head and stared down at the blue sphere, trying it to bounce into the air. He frowned when he saw that the rotation stopped, indicating that the sphere of energy needed to be contained in the palm of her hand as it simply lost energy. "Well that was interesting. Now I know why Ero-Sennin never throw it."

"Would Wind chakra help you throw it?"

Naruto tilted her head. "I don't think it is possible because I originally planned to incorporate it with the Rasengan to make it stronger. I mean even though I used the Rasengan, which is an A-rank jutsu, that villain didn't seem too badly injured from it. Ero-Sennin told me that wind has a very strong attack power and since my natural affinity is wind, well I thought to do this."

 _So she wanted to include wind chakra into the jutsu because of what happened when she rescued Bakugou._ Aizawa could see how much it bothered her that even her strongest technique had not been enough to defeat those villains. He rubbed his chin, wishing for the first time that he could be of help to his young student. Unfortunately, his Quirk allowed him to deactivate other Quirks and therefore he had no idea how to help her.

"Did you ask Jiraiya-san on how to do the step?" Aizawa asked.

Naruto nodded. "Yes but he wasn't much help. I usually like it when Ero-Sennin lets me try to figure things out for myself, but this level of wind chakra control isn't easy for me to figure out."

"What about Kakashi-san? Would he be able to help?"

"I never thought of asking Kakashi-sensei," she muttered. "And out of everyone that I know, he must have some idea on how to do this. If he copied so many jutsu, then he must have some wind jutsu in his arsenal and that means he must have learnt some chakra control exercises when it comes to the wind chakra! How can I forget about him? Idiot!"

His head throbbed as Naruto continued to berate herself for not thinking of going to her first teacher for help. It was true he wanted his student to open herself up to people, to the other students but Aizawa did not want a second Midoriya. Two impulsive students were enough for him, a third one meant that he might just need sign himself up for therapy.

"Now that you have an idea about the direction on how to do your first ultimate move, what about your second? Do you have any clues on what you want to do?"

His student tilted her head, knitted her eyebrows together and shook her head. It really should not surprise him about the fact that Naruto couldn't think of a second technique to use. Out of most of the students, the girl had been constantly drawing out those characters in pieces of paper and making amazing techniques. She probably had enough moves to exceed all the moves that he had.

It was not a big deal compared to the other students.

"You should ask either Jiraiya-san or Kakashi-san for advice on your next step," Aizawa pressed his lips into a thin line. "But make sure that the second technique doesn't involve the beast inside of you."

"Why? I thought you wanted me to use the Kyuubi, isn't that why you asked me to learn how to handle him?" Naruto asked, focusing her blue eyes on him. She sat on the floor, hands folded against her chest as she waited for him to explain his reasoning for her not to use the Kyuubi.

He wished for Naruto to learn how to handle the beast inside of her, but Aizawa knew from his talks with Jiraiya that if the girl didn't have good control over it then a lot of people might be harmed. The maximum she could withstand was six tails as Jiraiya told him, but even then she struggled. It was his duty as a teacher to make sure that Naruto was fine.

"Jiraiya-san told me that you can only withstand the Kyuubi's chakra till its sixth tail," Aizawa explained. "You did better than he expected since you didn't harm him once you reached that level. However, he admitted that you struggled to maintain yourself and that it was taking all of your willpower not to hurt anyone."

"The Kyuubi refuses to believe that I really do want to protect him," Naruto admitted. "So I think that is part of the reason for the struggle because well I haven't been the nicest protector when it came to him. I did demand for him to pay his rent—"

"You threatened a dangerous beast by demanding for his power as a form of payment of living inside of you!" Naruto laughed nervously as Aizawa rubbed the sides of his head. There was a dull ache around his head as the voices of the other students rung in his ears. He really was starting to question his sanity.

Maybe it wasn't Naruto who needed therapy, it should be him. How could his student think of threatening a dangerous beast? Did she not have any sense of self-preservation? What if the beast ruined her mind? There was always that possibility, wasn't there? Maybe they needed to include a class on self-preservation because Uzumaki needed to learn that lesson.

"Between Bakugou, Midoriya and you— I wonder which one of you is going to send me to an early grave."

He didn't sign up for this.

* * *

A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter. What do you think of the interactions between Naruto and the girls? And the one between Tomoko and Itachi? Do the interactions between the characters seem realistic or was the earlier version better?


	58. Chapter 58

A/N: I would like to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows as well as everyone that reviewed the last chapter.

* * *

Sakura had always thought of Naruto as a confident girl who didn't seem to give a shit about what people thought of her.

Instead of crying when most of the girls bullied her for her dreams or made fun of her whisker marks, Naruto would just clenched her hands into a fist and declared to them that she was going to become Hokage. _I am going to be the head bitch in charge of this place and then you guys will be sorry._ Those had been her teammate's words and like the shameless girls they were, they scoffed at her dreams.

It didn't seem to matter in Naruto's eyes because no matter how many times they taunted, the girl would just ignored their cruel words.

If Sakura was being honest, she envied her teammate for being so confident about herself. It took Ino giving her a headband and giving her advice on how to look better to get some form of self-confidence. But Naruto never had someone do that for her. Instead her teammate seemed to have been naturally born with confidence.

So you could imagine her surprise when she saw Naruto pacing back and forth, blue eyes kept flickering at the door as if uncertain on whether to knock or not. Her teammate kept holding her hand up before withdrawing it back, furiously shaking her head.

Sakua chewed on her bottom lip. "Naruto?"

Naruto froze, tan hands still reaching out to the door. She gulped, clicked her feet together and twisted her whole body around to look at her. A large smile played on her lips—almost reminding Sakura of a time when her teammate would give that large smile and call her Sakura-chan.

' _She doesn_ _'_ _t hate you even though you bullied her._ _'_

Todoroki-san's words echoed in her ear as her teammate smiled sheepishly at her like she was caught stealing cookies from the cookie jar. "Look it isn't what it looks like, Sakura-chan!"

"So you aren't debating about whether to knock Kakashi-sensei's door or not?" Sakura deadpanned, raising her eyebrow at her teammate.

"Okay—it is exactly as it looks like." Her teammate muttered, twirling her finger against her hair. Naruto straightened her back and smiled widely at her. "Is Kakashi-sensei here?"

Sakura shook her head and stared at the length of Naruto's hair. It escaped her notice in the hospital and in battle with the way her teammate had been in a prickle and the way Naruto finally let out all her emotions. But the long flowing blond hair of her teammate had reduced to the point her hair touched her shoulders.

The pink-haired girl could barely remember a time when Naruto's hair was _that_ short.

It was strange to say the least.

"Your hair…it's so much shorter," Sakura finally commented.

' _Did you hear? Sasuke-kun says he likes girls with long hair!_ _'_

The rumours of Sasuke's crush on Naruto was born on the day Ami asked him of what kind of girls he liked. Sakura recalled how most of the girls huddled together, eyebrows stitching together as they tried to figure out which one of the girls he liked. None of them had long hair except Naruto. So they observed Sasuke, noticing the way his eyes always lingered on her hair and then at her eyes.

When Sakura looked back, she understood what drew Sasuke to Naruto. With her long blond hair and bright blue eyes, their teammate looked like those elves in those children books they read. Naruto might not have the pointy ears but there was something magical about her appearance when compared to the other children.

It was one of the reasons all the girls hated Naruto.

"I was wondering when you were going to make that comment," Naruto admitted. The girl ran her hand through her hair, detangling the tangles in her hair. There was a tiny smile playing on her lips but all Sakura could focus was her teammate's eyes. The only emotion in those blue eyes was just calmness.

Had her teammate always been this calm? Where was the pouts for the fact she hadn't realized it earlier? The huge smile that always came whenever Sakura finally realized something. Naruto had always been the type to tease her, to taunt her and always made comments that annoyed her. Nothing about her words irritated her; it only reminded her of just how cruel she was to her own teammate.

"Does it look bad?" Naruto tilted her head. "This is the first time that I actually cut my hair and I know that a lot of people find it nice and well Shouto thinks I look pretty either way…but you were always the one that cared about how I dressed and the way I presented myself."

"You never cared about anyone's opinion," Sakura said softly. The two of them used to argue about Naruto's love for orange and the way she used to wear that orange jumpsuit when they weren't doing missions. Yes, it annoyed her that Sasuke liked Naruto better but the pink-haired girl wanted to improve how her teammate dressed.

Naruto was pretty and yet her teammate chose to wear clothes that didn't flatter her. As a girl that pride herself for her fashion sense, Sakura felt it was her duty to make sure her teammate wore clothes that flatter her figure and her looks.

It had been wrong of her to try and push her idea of style on her teammate.

"If I didn't care about what people thought of me then I would have actually tried in school," Naruto stated. "It was the other girls and the teachers opinion of me that made me decide to stop trying in our exams. I thought if I did what made the teachers and the other girls happy then you guys would try to be my friends."

' _Why don_ _'_ _t you want to play with me, Sakura-chan?_ _'_

' _Mummy says that I shouldn_ _'_ _t play with a bad girl like you._ _'_

Sakura felt her throat burned as the memory played out in her mind. Before her mother caught her playing with Naruto, the two of them used to play everyday in the swings and in the sandbox. It had been fun to make sandcastles with her teammate, to have someone that didn't make fun of her big forehead. But then her mother caught her and told her if she played with a bad kid like Naruto then she was grounded.

In her mind, the word _grounded_ meant that she would never be allowed to have fun.

When she recalled that memory and how nice Naruto was to her, it made her stomach roll over on how cruel she had been to her kind teammate. The word bitch never suited her more when she remembered these facts about herself.

"Why did you cut your hair?"

"Because all of you associated my long hair with Sasuke," Naruto looked up at the sky. "I want to move on from the past and to show everyone that Sasuke didn't dictate my actions. I wanted to let go of my feelings and I wanted to stop being that girl who was badly hurt by her best-friend's action."

"Naruto…"

"Do you know how painful it was to know that your best friend nearly killed you? You might love Sasuke…but he was my dearest friend," Naruto choked out. "He was the last person I expected that would try to kill me. We had ramen together and while we never talked to each other before Team Seven, we always stole a glance at each other in that pier. Sometimes I would tease him even though I was just so jealous of him. We were happy knowing that there had been someone who can understand our pain."

' _You_ _'_ _re annoying._ _'_

' _That, and lonely._ _'_

"I haven't been the best teammate to you, have I?" Sakura whispered. She knew she had been terrible but to hear Naruto pour out her feelings, it really did make her revaluate herself. Did Sasuke know the real Naruto? Did he see this? Because Sakura was beginning to understand why Sasuke continued to love Naruto during their days as Team Seven.

"You were terrible," Naruto admitted. "I understood why now, Sakura-chan. You probably thought I was being cruel to Sasuke-kun for not returning his feelings, when you would have done anything to get him to acknowledge you. But I was serious both in the hospital and in our time as Team Seven, I never loved him in that way and I really didn't know it."

"I know that now."

Naruto took in a deep breath. "If I knew his feelings then I would have discouraged it or at least told him from the very beginning that I love him like a brother. If anyone was really suited for him then it would have been you."

"What?"

Sakura felt her legs wobbled as her blond-haired teammate flashed her a tiny smile. Why would Naruto think like that? If anyone was really suited for Sasuke then it was her teammate. She had been useless against Sasuke. Despite confessing her feelings or offering to go with him, he still left. Sasuke had never looked at her and while her feelings never died down, Sakura couldn't help but feel put off that Naruto always mattered more.

"You stayed by his side throughout his time in the hospital," Naruto whispered. "Do you know how much that matters to someone like us? It feels like someone cares about us…that we matter to someone. There was someone that will cry if we died. Hinata visited me in the hospital and I know she cared, but I was a depressed little shit."

 _I only visited you once and I took out all my anger at you._ Sakura rubbed her eyes and cursed herself for being so selfish when it came to Naruto. The girl tried her hardest to bring Sasuke back and didn't even make fun of her when she pleaded for her to bring him back. The girl made a promise to bring him back to her. How did she return it to her?

She acted like a cruel person.

"I'm sorry…"

"You already apologized in the hospital," Naruto said, stopping Sakura from finishing her sentence. The girl flashed her a smile as if trying to reassure her that everything was okay between them. It really wasn't okay. All those times she insulted Naruto weren't worth this. How could she act like this? There was no way Nauto could be this forgiving.

' _You know what is the most interesting thing about Naruto? You could do the most shittiest thing to her, and she will forgive you._ _'_

Sakura took in a deep shaky breath. "Naruto, do you hate Sasuke for what he did?"

The smile from Naruto faded, replaced with such sorrowful eyes that Sakura regretted asking Naruto for this. Todoroki claimed Naruto doesn't hate Sasuke for his actions but it was impossible. If anyone should hate Sasuke, then it would be her teammate.

"It is easy to hate but it is harder to forgive," Naruto admitted. "The Sasuke that I fought in the Valley of the End? That isn't the Sasuke I know and it is the side that I hate about him. He wasn't himself, for that reason alone I can't hate him. He was ready to sacrifice his dreams to kill Itachi to protect me. Do you expect me to hate him after knowing this? He jumped right in front of me as Haku threw those senbons at me."

 _No, I can_ _'_ _t blame you._ It never occurred to ask why Sasuke had been injured, and she was almost glad that neither Sasuke nor Naruto told her. If she had known, then there was no doubt in her mind that her twelve-year-old self would blame her teammate.

She really was a cruel child to someone like Naruto.

"I won't tell Sasuke-kun that you found someone else to love," Sakura informed her teammate. She would never force her teammate to try to bring Sasuke back, especially not when she found someone that truly loved her. Todoroki's love seemed to rival, maybe even exceed the love that Sasuke had for Naruto. There was just no way she could tear her teammate away from him.

"I'm going to bring Sasuke back," Naruto admitted.

Sakura jerked her head. "What about Todoroki-san? You can't expect me to believe that you plan to leave…"

"He is coming with me," Naruto admitted. A small smile played on her lips but Sakura could see the worry in her blue eyes. Was her teammate worry about how her friend would react to Konoha? Or was it concern for Sasuke's reaction when he finds out that Naruto loves someone that wasn't him? If it was the latter, then Naruto should not care.

Sasuke should have known that leaving the village meant that there were opportunities for someone else to capture her heart.

"When _we_ manage to get Sasuke back then you might need to separate him from Todoroki-san," Naruto grimaced at the words but didn't argue against her advice. They knew Sasuke was not going to be a very happy camper when he learnt about Todoroki.

Sasuke never did like it when another boy showed interest to their blond-haired teammate, always glaring at them.

"So you also agree with me that Sasuke might just kill my boyfriend?" Naruto joked.

Sakura blinked, her mind going completely blank as she processed what Naruto just admitted. The whiskered girl blinked and waved her hands over her eyes, frowning when the pink-haired did not respond to her gestures. She tilted her head and waited for Sakura to come back to life.

"When did it happen? Did he confess to you? Or did you confess to him?" Sakura asked as soon as her mind finished processing the admission. She was almost jealous Naruto got a boyfriend before her, but then she recalled how cruel she had been to her teammate. The least she could do was be supportive for her new relationship.

Naruto flushed pink and rubbed the back of her neck, blue eyes avoiding Sakura's green eyes. "Shouto was the one that confessed first, but I was the one to initiate the kiss."

"How did he confess to you?"

Her teammate rubbed the back of her neck and there was almost a dazed look in her eyes, telling Sakura that the confession must have been magical to her.

If anyone deserved to be happy, then it was probably Naruto.

* * *

The first thing Naruto did, when Kakashi opened the door to his apartment to let Team Ten and her in, was find an empty glass and pour herself some milk to drink. She gulped it down in one go like she always did whenever her body seemed tensed. Perhaps it was just her but there was something utterly calming about drinking a glass of milk.

Once she finished her glass of milk, Naruto took the empty seat beside Sakura and flashed a smile at the members of Team Ten. Both Shikamaru and Choji seemed to try their hardest not to openly stare at her haircut, their eyes seemed focused on hers. The only female of their team had no problem of fixing her eyes on the blond hair that barely touched Naruto's shoulders.

"The world must be ending for you to cut your hair," Ino finally declared with her arms folded against her chest. Shikamaru pinched his nose, looking almost visibly annoyed at the dramatics shown by his teammate. "What on Earth caused you to finally decide to cut your hair?"

Naruto forced herself to smile as her blue eyes regarded the girl who made her last two years in the Academy hell. Those green eyes shone with genuine curiosity despite the harshness of her words. Pressing her lips into a thin line, Naruto inhaled and exhaled. Her excited heart seemed ready to burst along with the cruel words that seemed ready to jump out of her throat.

This was not the time for her to allow herself to get caught up in the moment.

"If I wanted to move on with my life then I needed to change a few things about myself," Naruto finally answered. She kept her tone light and easy, almost in a childish tone. A serious tone might startled Team Ten, which was the last thing Naruto needed. "So I thought it was better for me to begin with my hair."

It almost terrified her when the hairdresser cut her hair properly. The more the woman snipped her hair, the more nervous Naruto became. Would she look nice? Was it a good idea to cut her hair? Those thoughts kept running through her mind. It was even in the back of her mind when she returned back to school with short hair, because she never thought she would look pretty with short hair.

' _You look pretty with your short hair, but you are always pretty.'_

Those words made her smile and gave her the confidence that maybe she was someone other people saw attractive.

"I don't really care about Naruto's hairstyle—what I want to know is why did you leave Konoha?" Shikamaru stared at her with so much seriousness that the whiskered girl felt her fake smile dropped. "You were the last person I expected who would try to leave our village."

' _If you don't make any noise then you can watch the clouds with me.'_

Shikamaru might not have been a true friend to her, but Naruto still thought of him as one of her most precious friends. Even though he might not have hang out with her after school, he had no problems with letting her watch the clouds with him. They would just lay on the grass and watch the clouds as Naruto chatted away, always ignoring the annoyance Shikamaru showed for her not following with his request.

He did deserve to know the truth about her actions.

"The civilian council was pressuring the Old Hag to exile me after the stunt I pulled in the Valley Of the End," Naruto said softly. She forced herself to smile at them, to push back all of her negative emotions and focused on the present. "I already felt like a failure for not bringing him back and then the council said those words to her. I know the Old Hag wouldn't accept it and would fight against it but I didn't want to take the risk."

Shikamaru pressed his lips into a thin line and observed her. "There is another reason, isn't there? You had to have help to get here and the only other person who would know about Japan is someone nearly in the same level as the Hokage. Why would Jiraiya-sama take the risk to send you here? Everyone knows how loyal he is to the village."

 _Leave it to Shikamaru to figure out who helped me come here._ Naruto dropped her smile and closed her eyes, trying to shove her inner demons away from her mind.

"I couldn't keep pretending to be that happy girl and think everything is going to be okay," she admitted. "I felt like I was going to become crazy if I stayed in Konoha. I begged Ero-Sennin to let me go and find a place where no one seemed to hate me."

"But why take such a big risk if it was something—"

"Because Naruto has suicidal tendencies and Jiraiya saw that if he kept Naruto in Konoha then she would have hurt herself," Kakashi interjected quietly. The usual laziness and playfulness in his tone was gone, replaced with a tone filled with regret.

"Did you break into my—"

"Your homeroom teacher from Yuuei gave me that file so that I have a better understanding of you and why you needed to go to those therapist sessions," Kakashi explained quickly, earning a sigh from Naruto. The girl could believe that Aizawa-sensei would do this to her if he thought it would improve her mental health.

Everyone kept quiet and stared at her like they didn't expect her to have these thoughts. It surprised her too when she thought about it. Not once in her years in Konoha, did she ever consider something like this. It wasn't her but the mission messed with her.

"Hinata told us that you weren't acting like yourself," Choji admitted, finally breaking the silence between them. The chubby boy looked down at his hands, looking almost remorseful for what she nearly did to herself. It surprised her because it was no one's fault that she felt useless. She should have ignored those cruel words by the nurses like she always did, whenever she occasionally had to go to them. "She pleaded with us to go see you and help her to snap you out of it."

 _Of course she did._

Shikamaru took a deep breath and quietly admitted. "None of us could face you because all of us knew that if we felt crap for not bringing Sasuke back, then you felt a hundred times worse. I don't know about Kiba or Neji but I was a coward for not facing you."

 _All of us felt guilty, didn't we?_ It seemed like she wasn't the only one that felt guilt for what happened that mission. The mission changed them in so many ways and lead them to do things that they probably would have never done. She ran away from Konoha because her thoughts terrified her. She ran away because she felt tired of pretending to be happy.

She wanted to be free from those cold eyes.

"We were all cowards," Naruto observed. "I was too much of a coward to tell my only _real_ friend that I planned to leave Konoha—"

"Naruto, we are your friends too." Choji interrupted. "You know that, don't you?"

She shook her head and recalled all her happy times with her classmates. They invited her to the mall and despite what happened with Itachi, she had fun with them. They comforted and supported her, which was all she ever wanted. The incident in USJ hadn't terrified them, instead they visited her in the hospital. They gave her a huge teddy bear and cards telling her to get better.

"You guys were my skipping buddies but you weren't actually my friends in the truest sense," Naruto whispered. Her throat tightened as the memories of all those girls taunting her about her appearance and her parents flashed before her eyes. "Friends are there for each other. When another friend is being bullied then you stick up for them because that is what it means to be friends. You guys never did that for me."

"Look Naruto, I think that you are being a bit harsh…" Ino yanked her hand away as Shikamaru tried to warn her about her next words.

Blue eyes turned completely blank as Naruto regarded the girl that made her life hell. Was it harsh for her to say those words out loud to them? Was it wrong for her to finally let everything out? She wanted to move on with her life. The desire to have healthy relationships meant she needed to let all her feelings out—to let them know she was just as human as them.

It would be unfair for either of them if she kept those emotions bottled up.

"They never defended me when you made that rumour about me being a whore," Naruto forced herself to smile at the girl. She inhaled and exhaled several times till the pain in her aching heart dulled down to the point that it was bearable for her. Bearable enough for her to talk like a reasonable person. "I knew it was you who spread those rumours about me, since you are the only one that called me out for having a better developed figure than you."

Ino blinked at her words, opening and closing her mouth as Choji and Shikamaru glanced at each other. The guilt shining in those two boys eyes made her feel sorry for bringing back the past. Naruto knew all too well those two boys were hopeless when it came to Ino, especially when they knew the girl had her father wrapped around her finger.

The both of them probably thought Ino's father would never believed them over his princess, which might have been the reason they never defended her. There was also the fact that Ino would have made their lives hell and Naruto knew how much Shikamaru preferred a life where he didn't hear a woman nagging at him.

"Look I know you were a kid but that kind of behaviour was ugly even for you, Ino." Naruto said, keeping her tone light. _Keep your cool._ She chanted those words to herself as another wave of ugly emotions washed over her. "And I know we were all kids so I don't give a shit about that rumour. But you know what really disappointed me about the three of you? _It was that rumour you helped Ami spread about my parents!"_

She raised her voice at the last sentence and glared at the girl.

' _Old Man, my parents did die in the Kyuubi attack right? They didn't abandon me right? They were heroes, weren't they?'_

' _Your parents loved you so much Naru-chan but they did their duty to the village and helped protected Konoha from the Kyuubi. Don't ever let anyone tell you differently!'_

Even though the Third reassured her of those words, Naruto had her doubts till Ero-Sennin told her about who her parents were. Had she been actually loved like the Hokage claimed? Were her parents really heroes like the Third claimed? Or had he been lying to reassure a lonely little girl? It was a pain that was now slowly fading away.

It was a pain caused by a thoughtless jealous little girl.

"I was only eight Naruto," Ino whispered. "You know I was only jealous that Sasuke-kun had a crush on you. I knew it was cruel but—"

 _Crack._

Naruto slammed her hand against the table, tearing it half as she allowed all of her childhood frustrations to leak out. Her eyes burned as she recalled the desperate days of asking the Third about her parents. _Give me a name at least!_ _Tell me a story about them! Give me something of theirs that existed!_ She never asked for much. Just a name or anything that proved her parents really did exist.

Something to prove that she had been truly loved by her parents.

"Cruel? You were a fucking bitch to me when you helped spread those rumours about me," Naruto took in a shaky breath and willed herself not to cry. Tears didn't deserve to be spilled over something as trivia as this. "I never knew my parents! Do you know what it is like to go back to an empty apartment with no parents? Do you know what it is like to go to the Third and begged him to give you some fucking clue about who your parents are, only for him to refuse?"

Her throat dried up as she recalled sneaking into the library, looking for old photos in the Academy yearbooks. How many times did she imagine one of those faces had been her parents? How many times did she cry herself to sleep because she thought her parents hated her?

"Naruto, I didn't know that…"

"No, you didn't give a fuck to think of the girl that everyone in the Academy hated! You didn't stop to think of what I would feel," she snorted. "You know I told Bakugou that he was a fucking asshole for telling Izuku to commit suicide? But you know what? At least he showed me that he does care about Izuku in his own way. You? Not once did you show me that you can be nice to me. All you ever cared about was your popularity!"

Ino kept quiet and Naruto hated herself for being cruel but those words were her final straw.

"I'm tired of making excuses and acting like I am invincible…I'm not," Naruto slumped her shoulders and closed her eyes. "I cried myself to sleep after you spread those rumours. Because I honestly believed my parents chose to abandon me—I thought they hated me like the rest of the village."

Naruto blinked her eyes when Kakashi handed her tissues, looking almost uncomfortable as she did so. Taking the offered tissue, she wiped the tears from her eyes and took several deep breaths. She was strong and no longer the same girl as before. She knew better now about her parents. The stories Jiraiya told her of her Mum and Dad made her realized that they loved her.

The fact her mother had been a Jinchuuriki told her that her parents loved her. By not terminating her, her parents took the biggest risk in the world to bring her into this world and for that reason alone she would never allow another person's words doubt her parents love for her.

"You never made it seem like it affected you."

The whiskered girl sighed. "Because who would care about the feelings of the little girl that everyone hated? Why bother to show my real feelings when I know a lot of people didn't give a crap about it. It was better for me to smile and endure the pain, then to let you think that you won."

The last thing Naruto ever wanted was for Ino and Ami to know that they won.

"Look I didn't come to see Kakashi-sensei to talk about my feelings—if I wanted to do that then I will go to my therapist to do that," Naruto pressed the sides of her head and took a deep breath. "I came here because I want Kakashi-sensei to give me some tips about a wind chakra control exercise that Ero-Sennin taught me. I'm stuck and I want another person's advice on how to do it."

If it wasn't for the fact she needed help with the chakra control exercise then she would have stormed out of here.

* * *

"I don't give a shit about what happened to you but get your shit together before Half and Half bastard comes back, Whiskers!"

Naruto tore her eyes away from the blank television screen and stared at Bakugou, who took a seat beside her. It was only the two of them in the living space; their other classmates were either still waiting for their turn in the Support Group, or still trying to figure out the mechanics of their ultimate move. This meant that when she came back, it was only Bakugou in their dorm.

"I went to visit my teacher to ask him for help to figure out my ultimate move," Bakugou jerked his head while Naruto pressed her hands against her head. "He gave me some tips which is great, but I allowed myself to break down in front of the bitch who made up rumours about me being a whore. You know what is even better? She was also the bitch who helped another bigger bitch spread those rumours about my parents abandoning me."

"I didn't ask about what the fuck is making you upset," Bakugou grumbled, scowling. Naruto felt her lips twitched, blue eyes fixated on the boy that might just be slowly becoming her friend. The world must be ending for her to admit this but it had been Bakugou, who first noticed her feelings about Todoroki.

"We both know that you want to calm me down before everyone else comes and blames you for it," Naruto said with a small smile playing on her lips. The boy scowled, not looking one bit bothered about the fact that the other students liked to make a joke about him hurting her feelings.

It had been a recurring theme from the moment she cut her hair.

"If I have to listen to Whisker talk about her crappy day then I'm getting some ice-cream," Bakugou muttered, walking towards the fridge from the other side of the room.

"Bring me a spoon too, Explosive Head!" She called out, turning on the television screen. Bakugou clicked his feet together, twisted his whole body around and gave her the middle finger. This earned a laugh from Naruto, allowing her for just one brief moment to forget about her crappy day.

The boy jumped in the couch and raised his eyebrow at the movie being played. "Seriously, Whiskers? If you are going to force me to listen to your damn problems then put something else on! The Titanic is a movie that you should watch with Half-and-Half bastard!"

"I just opened the television and I don't like romantic movies too," she grumbled at him as she flipped through the channels until Bakugou told her to stop at the movie called Die Hard. He handed her the spoon before opening the tub of ice-cream.

Her blue eyes widened when she saw that Bakugou picked vanilla ice-cream. "Never pictured you as a vanilla ice-cream type of guy."

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean? And just for saying that shit, you are not getting any ice-cream!" Bakugou snapped, keeping the ice-cream close to his chest. "Vanilla is a fucking great flavour that goes with everything."

"I'm sorry for insulting your taste, Explosive Head," Naruto pushed her lips into a pout and the boy snorted, not looking one bit affected by her attempts of looking cute. It was not like she expected him to be affected, but she really wanted some ice-cream. "Pretty please give me some ice-cream."

"Not a chance in hell after that crap," Bakugou declared. "Now start talking before the ice-cream melts."

Naruto sighed. "You know how you used to bully Izuku for being Quirkless? Well I got bitches gossiping about me being a fucking whore since Sasuke liked me more than them. I forgave Sakura-chan for what she did because she was getting better in her treatment to me and because she actually looked sorry for being a bitch to me."

"Someone actually called _you_ a whore?" Bakugou snorted. "You are fucking clueless if a guy likes the shit out of you. You didn't even realize that Half-and-Half Bastard fucking likes you until he confessed to you. You expect me to believe that you could intentionally attract someone?"

"I don't know whether to be insulted by the fact you have so little faith in my skills or be happy that you found it just as silly as me," Naruto grumbled. "But thank you! And then she spread rumours about my parents with Ami, telling everyone that my parents fucking abandoned me!"

Bakugou didn't immediately make a comment instead he shoved her the tub of ice cream, lips pressed into an ugly scowl. Shooting him a grateful look, Naruto dug into the ice cream and shoved it into her mouth. The coldness of the dessert soothed her, allowing her to take deep breaths to calm down her shaky emotions.

"Now why the hell do you call me an asshole?" Bakugou complained, fixated on the television screen. "She sounds like an even bigger bitch than you. Anyone with a brain knows that you don't cross that shitty line with orphans!"

"You weren't any better with Izuku," she reminded him. "You told him that he should commit suicide."

"He was fucking trying to get into U.A High without a Quirk? How the fuck did he expect to get in when it came to the damn practical exam?" He asked. "He needed to stop dreaming and faced the damn facts about his chances."

She raised her eyebrow. "Why don't you just tell him that shit instead of telling him to just jump off the school?"

"I never said I was fucking good with this shit," he protested. "And also why do you give a fuck about what that bitch says? Anyone with any brains knows that shit about you is wrong. You have to be empty in the damn head to think that you are a whore."

"Everyone is going to have a field day when I tell them that you do have a soft side."

"Tell them that shit and I will fucking end you."

"I care about you too."

"Don't put words into my mouth, Whiskers!"

* * *

 **A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter, especially the interactions between Bakugou and Naruto. It would be nice to hear your thoughts of the new version of this chapter.**


	59. Chapter 59

**A/N: I would like to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows.**

* * *

As a little girl, Naruto always imagined all of the amazing jutsu that she would use as a kunoichi.

She imagined them to be so powerful that her enemies would tremble in fear and flee from the area with their tails behind their backs. _Uzumaki Naruto isn't an enemy that you want to see in the battlefield since she has that powerful jutsu._ Those words would have been whispered in the wind, telling them of her greatness.

Opening her eyes, Naruto stared up at the roaming clouds and let out a sigh. _I can feel that this jutsu is going to be one of the jutsu that will make everyone tremble in fear._ The holes surrounding her made it feel like it would be a great jutsu, maybe powerful enough against Sasuke.

"Your new ultimate move seems to be very damaging."

Naruto rolled her head to the side and smiled sheepishly at Todoroki. Her boyfriend had his eyes fixed on the number of holes surrounding the area, his mismatch eyes not showing his feelings about the damage done to the grounds.

Blue eyes shone with mischief when Todoroki offered his hand to her. Naruto kept her expression blank, her tanned hands taking his hand before yanking him to the ground. He blinked at the action and raised his eyebrow at her, looking almost confused for her incident.

"It seems like you need a break too," Naruto explained as she made herself comfortable next to her boyfriend. Todoroki stiffened, shoulders tensed for just a minute. He relaxed after another minute. "And watching the clouds as it flies away is actually quite relaxing. I never did understand why Shikamaru used to like to watch the clouds, but after nearly mastering my jutsu—well I get the point."

Todoroki hummed and looked up at the sky. "What did you come up with? You have been secretive about it."

"I came up with the idea of adding wind chakra to the Rasengan," Naruto replied, holding her hand up in the air. "I never thought it could be so damn hard to do the exercise or even adding wind to Rasengan. Kakashi-sensei told me that even my Father had trouble doing this."

Todoroki rolled to the side and his mismatch eyes shone with concern. "When did you visit him? He didn't say or do anything that upset you."

Naruto inhaled and exhaled, avoiding her boyfriend searching eyes. Kakashi had been nothing but caring in his own way when it came to her. He didn't discourage her, telling her that someone like her couldn't surpass her father. Instead he encouraged her plans and informed her that if anyone could surpass her father then it would be her.

It pleased her to know he had so much faith in her capabilities.

"I visited him two days ago," Todoroki pressed his lips into a thin line and Naruto almost felt a twinge of guilt for not telling him about her visit. "I needed advice to master the second part of my wind chakra control exercise and since Ero-Sennin hasn't been that helpful—I went to Kakashi-sensei."

Her boyfriend ran his fingers against her hair, mismatch eyes locked on her. Concern flooded into his eyes, which caused the girl to smile reassuring to her boyfriend. It was a better idea not to make worry about her especially not when they had the exams coming up soon.

She sighed when she saw the anger swirling in those eyes. It was probably too much for her to think that Shouto wouldn't notice that she was still hurt from Ino's actions.

"He hurt you, didn't he?"

Naruto furiously shook her head and closed her eyes, breathing in the husky scent of Todoroki. Her whole body relaxed as the constant ache in her heart dulled down to the point where she forgot all of her problems. As much as Bakugou offered his comfort when she came back to the dorms, there was something about Shouto that allowed her to feel so relaxed.

"Kakashi-sensei didn't hurt me," Naruto rubbed his tensed arms and smiled softly at him. Todoroki relaxed but the concern didn't fade from his eyes. "I just lost my temper with Ino because I kept remembering all those stupid rumours she made or helped spread. I know I should just let it go, but damn it she really knows how to push my buttons."

Todoroki pressed his lips into a thin line and asked softly. "What rumours? What were the rumours that she spread which made you so furious?"

"You know silly rumours," Todoroki knitted his eyebrows and the blonde was again reminded that her boyfriend never cared about these things. It might be a side effect of being a child of Endeavour because Naruto knew without a doubt that her boyfriend must have read and ignored a few rumours about his father.

Naruto sighed and placed her head on his chest; Todoroki flushed a light shade of pink at her action. Her lips twitched upwards when she felt his racing heartbeat that sounded like it might explode at any moment. The knowledge such a small action could cause him to react like this, made her want to find new ways in which he could react.

"You know I can't read your mind, Naruto." He whispered, cheeks growing even more red when Naruto wrapped her arms around him. "I know what you are trying to do Naruto and hugging me like this won't make me stop asking you about the rumours. I know it is painful but I'm here for you."

She knew that but Naruto didn't want her good mood to be ruined by remembering those rumours. But she also recognised that Shouto could be just as stubborn as her and would probably push her into explaining what those rumours were.

"She helped spread the rumour about my parents abandoning me," Naruto curled her lips into a tight smile as her boyfriend pressed his lips into a thin line. "That was the one rumour I actually cared about because I used to have doubts about whether my parents loved me or not."

Naruto pushed herself up and stared at her boyfriend. No emotions shone through those mismatch eyes she loved yet there was a coldness in them that reminded her of Shouto's anger towards his father. He might try to fool her but it was clear to see her boyfriend was furious with what Ino helped spread in their childhood.

"Look Shouto, I'm actually fine—"

"Naruto, who are you lying to? I know that not even you could be okay with how cruel her words were to you," Shouto insisted. She opened her mouth to argue but the younger boy pressed her down against his chest, his hands hesitated as they rubbed circles around her back. "You shouldn't have gone there by yourself."

Naruto sighed and shook her head. "I can't spend my whole life avoiding them, Shouto. All of them had been my friends in some way or form, which means they deserve to have an explanation for my actions."

Todoroki sighed.

"But most of them had hurt you in some way," he reminded her. "I know you are strong Naruto but you only let down your walls now. I know from watching you that once you broke down those walls, it is hard for you to build them back up. You needed support so that you didn't have a break down like you had two days ago."

Naruto curled her lips, running her hands against Todoroki's soft hair and stared right at his eyes. She knew he cared about her and it made her happy to know this but she was a big girl. _It was just one small mistake._ She smiled brightly, hoping and praying it would be enough to reassure him that everything was going to be okay with her.

"What was life like for you in school?" Naruto asked, changing the topic. "I know you said that you didn't have any fangirls, but I refuse to believe it. Not only are you good-looking but your Father is a pro-Hero, which means you would have ranked high in a lot of girl's interest."

Todoroki's lips twitched at her words and his eyes flashed with amusement at her words. She chewed on her bottom lip, tongue poking her cheeks as she waited for him to confess that he did have at least a couple of girls stalking him. Mina and the other girls even admitted to her that they found him to be the most good-looking boy in their year.

"I wouldn't know," Todoroki admitted. "Most of the kids tried to become friends with me, because of Endeavour and not because they were really interested in me. So if a girl ever came near me in an attempt to talk to me, I presumed it was because they knew who my father was."

Naruto frowned. "Then, did you think the same for me? Because I literally had no idea who the hell your father was until the Sports Festival."

"You chose to sit beside me because you thought no one would dare take a seat beside me," he reminded. His lips twitched upwards while Naruto flushed pink, almost regretful for her words. "You didn't even look at me like some of those kids did, instead you just ate your food in peace after telling me that you didn't want to make friends."

She smiled at his words, causing the younger boy to falter slightly. He flickered his eyes down at her before running his hand through her hair, removing the grass that seemed to have gotten in her hair. Naruto curled her lips into a wider smile when she heard the increased pace of his heart.

"I was really crappy at doing the emo thing, wasn't I?" She asked. Todoroki paused, contemplated for a minute about her question and then nodded. Naruto just exhaled, smiling slightly at him. "Even though at first I didn't want to make friends, I couldn't stop myself from opening up to everyone. I thought I could keep quiet and just pretend not to give a shit about everyone, but I just can't stop myself from talking too much."

"I like it," Todoroki admitted and Naruto flushed a light shade of pink at the ease the boy could say those words out loud. His lips twitched upwards, giving her that small smile she loves. "You are very honest when you babble non-stop and you look really cute with your flushed cheeks."

"Is that why you never stop me?"

Todoroki nodded and Naruto groaned, wishing she had a way to pay him back for this. Could she try and intentionally babble in front of him? No, it wouldn't feel authentic. She could try and peck him in the lips but the other students might just catch them, which would bring around of questions from everyone. Was there anything that she could do to pay him back?

She had to ask Hinata-chan.

"Do you plan to visit them again?" Todoroki asked.

Naruto nodded. "I have to because I need to explain myself again to Neji's team since I think they arrived today. Hinata-chan didn't give me much of the details and she offered to explain it herself, but I can handle them—I think."

"You think?"

Naruto bobbed her head, which earned a frown from her boyfriend. It was not like she had any problems with the members of Team Guy. Neji had gotten a lot nicer after she kicked his ass and she respected Tenten since the girl could use so many weapons. Lee might be a weirdo but he inspired her with how he never gave up. The only problem she had was the jumpsuit.

The jumpsuit till this day burned her eyes.

"Bushy Brows is _very_ enthusiastic," Naruto explained, lips pressed into a very thin line as she tried to think of the best way to describe the older boy. "I think you can put him in the same level as Iida when it comes to anything ninja-like…or maybe Izuku? I mean from what I know from Lee, no one actually thought he was going to be a shinobi because he can't use ninjutsu or genjutsu."

"He wasn't in the same class as you?" Todoroki asked.

Naruto shook her head. "Neji, Tenten and Lee are older than me by a year, so I was never in the same class as them or saw them that much in the Academy. Between the three of them, I saw Neji the most and that is because he is Hinata-chan's cousin."

Her lips twitched into a smile when she recalled the ways she would get the older teen riled up. It had been her way to pay him back for all those times he bullied her best friend, for making her think that she wasn't strong enough to change herself. If she had known all she had to do was beat him up then she would have done it a long time ago.

"I'm going to go with you today."

Naruto jerked her head. "And what about your Mum? I don't think that it is a good idea for you to skip meeting your mum to come with me."

"I will meet with her after we are done with them," he replied. She poked her tongue against her cheek, trying to think of a way that they could come to a compromise. There was no way that Naruto would allow him to come with her when she knew he might just take things too far. Maybe she should just invite more people to come along, although Sakura might not be able to keep her mouth quiet about her relationship with Todoroki.

She needed someone to help her control her boyfriend if he got into a rage when he sees Ino.

"Fine but we are bringing Izuku and Bakugou with us," Naruto declared and the boy just raised his eyebrow at him. She pressed her lips into a thin line. "I need someone to help me keep you in check if Ino says something thoughtless again."

"I understand Midoriya but Bakugou? He can't control his temper," Todoroki reminded her.

"I have absolute faith that Bakugou can control himself." Her boyfriend raised his eyebrow, looking absolutely unconvinced about their friend's ability to hold himself back from the others. She kept a smile on her face and he sighed, realizing that the blonde was not going to change her mind about Bakugou.

She had absolute faith that Bakugou wouldn't do anything stupid.

* * *

"Remind me again why you are dragging me into this? I have better things to do than to deal with this fucking shit."

Naruto raised her eyebrow at Bakugou, who just scowled at her as he waited for her to knock the door. A huge part of her just wanted to question him because she knew he completed his ultimate move. The only thing left for a perfectionist like him was to fine tune the technique. Something like that could be done at night or even tomorrow in the morning.

"Actually, I'm curious to know why you asked me to come too," Izuku admitted, green eyes flickering to the door in front of them. Naruto frowned and the boy laughed nervously. "Not that I don't want to meet the other members of your search party because I'm curious to know what is happening."

"It is because I trust the two of you to hold Shouto back if someone says something stupid," Naruto admitted.

Bakugou snorted. "Like hell I hold him back."

"Glad to know that I can trust you to do as I requested."

"Screw you," Bakugou grumbled, shoving his hands into his pocket and ignoring the questioning looks from Izuku. Naruto just let out a laugh and stared at Todoroki, who raised his eyebrow at her. It might have taken her awhile but she finally had a better understanding of the kind of person Bakugou was. She just have to take his words at face-value.

Naruto knocked the door and waited for a good couple of minutes for one of the members of her search party to open the door. Did she apologize to Shikamaru and Choji first? Or does she start by explaining herself again to Team Gai? Well maybe she should do the latter. The apology for those two boys could be done when everything was cleared up.

The door swung open and Hinata smiled at the sight of her. The smile faded slightly when she saw she brought three more people with her. She raised her eyebrow, waiting for her to explain herself but Naruto could just give a feeble shrug.

Todoroki sighed. "I told Naruto to bring me along because she might just snapped again."

"Shikamaru-kun told me about you losing your temper with Ino," Hinata informed her. The lavender-eyed girl scrunched her eyebrows together as she flickered her eyes to the room. "I presume I had to play mediator, but it seems like Todoroki-kun was wise and brought a few…"

"It was actually Naruto's idea, Hinata-san." Izuku interrupted, smiling nervously at the girl. "She wants Kacchan and me to hold Todoroki-kun back if someone in your search party says something that would hurt her."

"Don't even fucking understand why she thinks I want to do it," Bakugou grumbled.

Hinata thinned her lips and swirled her head at Naruto. Disbelief shone through those pale milky eyes and Naruto just gave a nervous laugh. The whiskered girl run her hand through her hair, avoiding the searching eyes of her best friend. She darted her eyes everywhere but to her friend.

It was not like she didn't trust the others to defend themselves, but rather she didn't trust the other members of the search party not to ty and hurt him. Lee and Neji could be quite fast and Shikamaru could use the shadows to capture them.

She rather not have to deal with a fight.

"Everyone is waiting for you inside but it seems like we will need to pull out more chairs," Hinata muttered, shaking her head. She gestured for them to enter. As the four teens entered, Hinata fixated her eyes on the brush of hands between Todoroki and Naruto.

The four of them stopped when they saw the gathered teams sitting in the living room. Team Gai had taken the couch while the remaining members of Team Eight and the members of Team Ten took the dining table. Sakura seemed content to sit on the floor alongside Kakashi, who raised his eyebrows at the sight of the other three boys.

Everyone just stared at each other in silence, their eyes taking in the new occupants.

"Naruto, your flames of youth shines even brighter than ever!" Lee declared, breaking the silence between everyone. Bakugou swirled his head at her as if asking her whether this guy was sane or not. Izuku sweated, not understanding what the hell was happening, while Todoroki sweated at the boy's enthusiasm.

Naruto tilted her head. "Thank you…I guess? You look just as…youthful?"

The boy beamed widely at her words, while Neji and Tenten just shook their heads at their teammate. Naruto just slumped her shoulders, offering a tiny smile at the remaining members of Team Gai. She tilted her head when Neji fixed his eyes on the three boys. His eyes didn't reveal any of his emotions, not like she expected for him to show his emotions.

This was Neji she was talking about.

"Naruto, why did you bring these guys? I presumed you were going to come here by yourself," Shikamaru admitted, eyebrows raised at the scowling blond-haired boy.

"Because someone here thinks I shouldn't be by myself when we talk," Naruto shifted her eyes to Todoroki and the mismatch boy kept his expression blank. Honestly she just lost her emotions the one time he wasn't there and he believed she couldn't handle this.

Ino flickered her eyes at them and the glint in her eyes almost terrified her, because she knew that glint. It was the same glint the girl made whenever she was snooping for information. It was like that time when Ino tried to figure out whether Kiba returned Hinata's feelings.

"I owe you an apology," Ino said, furiously shaking her head. She pressed her lips into a thin line and her green eyes did show some genuine remorse for the actions she had done, but Naruto was still in some ways petty. Sakura had been easy to forgive, because the girl saved her life and never made fun about her lack of parents.

Ino was a whole different story.

"For what exactly, Ino?" Naruto asked, keeping her expression blank. She flickered her eyes to Bakugou and Izuku, who quickly kept their hands on Todoroki. "You need to be very specific on what you are apologizing to me for."

Was it wrong of her to make Ino explain herself? She knew exactly what the girl wanted to apologize to her about, but it would be nice to see her squirm just a little bit. Just the thought nearly made her want to smile. It would definitely make up for all those times that the girl made up for those stupid rumours about her and her love life.

Ino took a deep breath. "Everything. I knew it was wrong for me to make those rumours up about your parents but Sasuke-kun was so interested in you and you didn't even acknowledge his feelings. Do you know how hard I tried to get him to notice me? And you did nothing to get him to notice you. So when Ami came to me and asked me to help spread those rumours, I thought it was only payback for the lack of care you had to Sasuke-kun."

"Do you know how fucking stupid you sound, Barbie?" Bakugou snapped and Todoroki twisted his head at her, raising his eyebrow at her for bringing the blond-haired boy with them. She pressed her lips into a thin line while Izuku grabbed Bakugou by the arm, trying to calm him down.

Bakugou yanked his arm away and glared at Izuku, who flinched. The blond-haired boy narrowed his eyes at the platinum blond-haired girl in front of him. "You don't ever fucking cross the line about parents when it comes to orphans. Even a fucking asshole knows better than to do that and I'm an asshole."

"I thought you said you have better things to do than do this shit," Naruto called out.

Bakugou snorted. "Bitch makes me fucking pissed and you are fucking idiot if you believe this bullshit."

"Naruto should just give her a chance," Izuku said softly, drawing everyone's attention to him. The green-haired boy flushed a light shade of pink and rubbed the back of his neck, looking almost embarrassed by the attention. "She looks like she is sorry and while what she said isn't all that nice…she was just a kid. You said even worse things to me, Kacchan."

Bakugou scowled at those words and Naruto bit her lips, trying to stop herself from explaining Bakugou's reasoning to their friend. It was not her job to explain that Explosive Head said crappy things, because he had no better idea how to convey his emotions. He might have a superiority complex and it might pissed him off about Izuku catching up to him, but there were certain times when Bakugou said things to snap him out of his naivety.

Even if some of them had taken things too far, the suicide thing being a prime example.

"Naruto, Choji and I owe you an apology for not defending you against Ino—"

Naruto held her hand up and stopped Shikamaru from finishing his sentence. A small smile played on her lips, blue eyes shone with understanding and the boy faltered under her gaze. Both of the boys frowned at her, which caused the blond-haired girl to smile even wider at them.

"I will accept that apology and I am sorry too," Shikamaru and Choji blinked while Todoroki and Bakugou swirled their heads at her. They raised their eyebrows at her; she just smiled at them. "Look I was pretty cruel to say those words to you guys. You guys are my friends. I mean Shikamaru, you helped me plan some epic pranks…"

The Nara heir snorted but Naruto could see the smile playing on his lips. _He might have not hang out with me after school but Choji and him treated me a lot better than most of the people in our class._ She took a deep breath and directed her eyes at Choji. The poor boy looked so guilty about his actions that Naruto's heart ached for those cruel words that she said to them.

"Choji, you used to offer me chips and I know how difficult it was for you to give some to me," Naruto smiled at the boy, keeping her tone light and easy. "I know you don't really like to share your chips with anyone that you don't think is a friend. You are my friend too, I just said those things because…"

She trailed off as memories of her actions in Japan flashed before her eyes. Learning how to play the guitar from Jirou. Being teased mercilessly for her feelings for Shouto by Mina and the other girls. The constant meals with Izuku and Iida. Her first outing with her classmates. All of those memories appeared right before her but there was one constant thing that she always did.

It was something that wasn't fair for any one of her friends.

"Because…" Shikamaru prompted.

Her smile faded. "Because I kept comparing you guys to my friends here and it isn't fair to any of you guys. I mean yes there were things that you guys did which hurt me but I haven't really been a good friend to you guys either. I always put the focus on me but I never actually focused on your problems."

She might try to build confidence in Momo. There were days when she contemplated about putting Ochako and Izuku in a closest but not once did she ever think of helping her friends in Konoha. Instead of encouraging Choji to be more confident about himself, she just ignored it. Whenever Shikamaru fell asleep in class, she should have woken him up the moment Iruka-sensei started scanning the class.

Instead she ignored it.

A pair of large hands touched her shoulder, snapping her back to reality. Naruto twisted her head around and smiled when Shouto looked at her with concern. She shook her head, blue eyes focused on the mismatch eyes of her boyfriend. It was wrong of her to make everything about her when she was a child, but she knew better now.

She was going to be a better friend to everyone.

"I am sorry but I just can't hold it in," Ino declared, drawing everyone's attention to her. The platinum blonde put her hands on her hips and locked her eyes on Naruto and Shouto. "But are the two of you dating?"

Naruto flushed pink, blue eyes avoiding the Yamanaka Heiress' curious eyes. How could Ino figure it out from just one touch? Were the two of them that obvious? There was no way that they were this obvious. Not when the blonde knew that Mina would have relentlessly teased her for being with Todoroki. In fact Momo would have been disappointed if she found out that she was dating Shouto without telling her.

Nope, this was a skill only Ino had.

"We are," Todoroki finally answered, linking his fingers around Naruto. Hinata smiled while Sakura just stared at Naruto, green eyes shining with so much happiness. The sight of those happy eyes made Naruto's throat tightened, because she didn't actually believed that Sakura was serious about supporting her relationship with Todoroki.

"Did you make it very obvious to Naruto?" Hinata asked, tilting her head at him. "How did you do it? Did you kiss her so she could understand that you like her?"

Naruto grinned as her boyfriend flushed pink at the attention being thrown at him. He swirled his head at her, mismatch eyes pleading for her to be the one to answer Hinata's questions and this only made Naruto smile even wider. For the first time since they met, her boyfriend was actually showing his emotions visibly for the whole world to see.

It was perhaps for this only reason that Naruto decided to give into his wishes.

"He went down on his knee and he had my favourite flower too," Naruto informed Hinata. Lavender eyes grew wide at those words while Bakugou swirled his head at Todoroki. Izuku didn't look surprise, which made sense when Naruto considered how her boyfriend seemed to consider Izuku to be his closest friend.

"What the hell were you doing, Half and Half Bastard? Were you trying to propose to her or something?" Bakugou scowled.

Todoroki frowned. "Well I read in my sister's manga that…"

"You don't use manga as a guide on confessions!"

All the girls laughed as the two boys argued about the right way in which Todoroki should have confessed his feelings to Naruto. The twinkle in Naruto's eyes faded when she saw the longing look in Sakura's eyes. Taking a deep breath, the blond-haired girl smiled at her teammate and hoped that her eyes showed her that one day her teammate might find someone that would love her as much as Naruto loves Shouto.

It might not have to be Sasuke, but her teammate would find someone that would love her with all of her heart.

"Can we discuss about the issue of what you plan to do? We didn't come all this way for the two of you to talk about Naruto's relationship or to argue about the proper way in which a guy should confess to a girl," Neji said sternly, drawing everyone's attention to him. The teen looked almost uncomfortable with the talk about her newfound relationship, and Naruto flushed pink.

Tenten just sighed and shook her head, looking almost put off at her teammate's words. It almost made Naruto wonder if those two were in a relationship.

"Sorry about that," Naruto muttered before straightening her back. "I will come back with you guys but I won't stay in Konoha forever. Don't get me wrong, I will come back to Konoha but it is just whenever the village needs me. I will explain the whole situation with the Old Hag."

"You plan to go back? Are you fucking insane, Whiskers? I don't give a fuck about you but you are an idiot to go back there!" Bakugou snarled, earning frowns from everyone in Konoha 11. Naruto pressed her lips into a thin line, not bothering to correct him. Todoroki frowned while Izuku stared at her with concern. "Those bastards treated you like you weren't even fucking human. You fucking cried to All Might about the crap you went through and you decide to go there!"

"Just like I saved your ass from those villains, I'm going to save Sasuke's ass from that paedophile," Naruto smiled. "You guys can call me insane all you want, but I won't give up on him. If I had been in his place then Sasuke would go through hell to bring me back. He would have done everything in his power to bring me back and so I will do the same."

Heroes save people and Sasuke needed to be saved, whether from making the biggest mistake of his life or be it from the dark and lonely path he chose for himself. There was no way she could call herself a friend or even a hero if she couldn't save him.

She would save him not just because he was her friend or Weasel's little brother. She would do it because he would have done the same for her. He had been one of the first people to acknowledge her in the village and if it wasn't for him, Hinata and Iruka-sensei, then maybe she might have ended up like Gaara.

Naruto just hoped he would be willing to listen to her.

* * *

 **A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter.**


	60. Chapter 60

A/N: I would like to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows.

* * *

The Provisional License Exam was tomorrow and All Might still hadn't seen what his female student planned for her ultimate move. He had seen what young Midoriya and young Bakugou planned for their ultimate move, along with the other students. The chances he could be of actual help to young Uzumaki was low but Toshinori wanted to be at least of some help to her.

The sight of two clones standing right beside Naruto made All Might stopped in his steps, his eyes growing wide at the sight in front of him. _What did she actually come up with?_ Toshinori stood by a distance and watched as the former kunoichi gathered her energy around her hand with the help of a clone standing by her side, not only helping to maintain the shape of the Rasengan but also adding more shape to the ball of energy. The other clone swirled and whirled his hands around as wind gathered around the ball of energy.

The final appearance of her move was that of a shuriken and Toshinori wondered if his young student planned to throw the shuriken of energy at her opponent.

His ears throbbed as the shuriken of energy screeched. Poking his fingers in his ears, Toshinori grimaced. _The only problem I can see with her move is the fact that it is taking time for her to make it._ Time was of the essence when it came to rescuing people and in battles. For young Uzumaki to spend this much time meant that she would end up being a liability in battle.

"Boss! All Might is here!" One of the clones yelled.

The girl blinked her eyes and slammed her ultimate move onto the ground. The ground below Naruto crumbled to dust as a strong wind blew in several direction. Wind swept against Toshinori and for a brief moment he felt like he was being stabbed in the arm. It seemed like even if he was a safe distance away, the move still had a potential to hurt him.

It was an amazing move for battle but it probably should never be used in crowded areas. Should he bring this up with her? Or did his young student already realize this? It was a bad time for him to leave that book at home.

"All Might, what are you doing here?" His student asked, smiling widely at him. The brightness and width of her smile reminded Toshinori of that missing boy Minato. That boy would always be one of his biggest regrets. A young six-year-old torn away from his mother, stepfather and half-sister when he was walking back home after school. No matter how far they looked, there had been no clues about his whereabouts.

His mother and stepfather blamed them for what happened, and claimed they never searched hard for him.

They claimed that the government and the other heroes didn't look hard for Minato because he was Quirkless.

"I wanted to see how you were doing with your Ultimate Move," Toshinori admitted, locking his eyes on the huge hole that her move created. "It seems like you have come a long way despite your early problems."

"Kakashi-sensei gave me the idea of using my clones to speed up my training, which is why I was able to catch up with the others in such a short time," Naruto admitted, smiling sheepishly at him. She rubbed the back of her neck, blue eyes flared with so much joy and happiness that caused Toshinori to smile.

Was this really the same girl from three months ago? If someone was to meet this blond-haired girl now, they would never presumed this was a child that went through so much hardship. The smile that Uzumaki gave, reminded Toshinori of one of the reasons that he wanted to become a Hero in the first place.

It was so kids like Uzumaki could smile like that.

"Young Uzumaki, this ultimate move is amazing," Naruto beamed at his words and nearly puffed up her chest at his words. Toshinori mentally winced at what he had to inform the girl. "But there are two problems with your ultimate move: it takes too much time for you to make and it doesn't seem stable even in my eyes. You will be holding it like a weapon."

"I realize that but I have no idea on how to maintain the form," Naruto admitted, rubbing her shoulders. "Until I can figure out how to fix this flaw then I have to hold it like a weapon."

"You also feel some pain from using this move, don't you?" The whiskered girl furiously shook her head, smiling widely at him like she was trying to reassure him that she was fine.

Toshinori pressed his lips into a thin line, wondering what he should do with this reckless young woman. It seemed just like Izuku, Naruto was also willing to put her body through massive strain to get a job done. However unlike his successor, the girl had a fox that healed all of her injuries which meant that she was more resilient compared to other people. It might be the only benefit she had, but Toshinori did not like it one bit.

He didn't want either Naruto or Izuku to put themselves through so much pain.

"If you feel some form of pain from using this move then you should use it as your last resort," Toshinori advised her. "You will be no good to anyone if you are unable to fight or rescue anyone because of the pain caused by your own move."

Naruto nodded and laid down on the ground, blue eyes locked on the bright blue sky. Toshinori sighed, stared at the sky and took a seat on the ground right beside the blond-haired girl. He probably should check on the other students, but it seemed almost relaxing for him to observe the white clouds.

There was also the fact that he needed to talk to young Uzumaki about her actions.

"Young Uzumaki, why didn't you do as you were told? The behaviour you displayed during the rescue of young Bakugou was something I expected from young Midoriya," he asked her.

Naruto hummed and stared up at the sky. "I failed to save my best friend from a pedophile and I regretted that. I didn't want to have the same regrets when it came to Explosive Head."

 _She might be smiling but I can hear the sadness in her tone._ Toshinori stared at the young girl, noticing not for the first time just how fragile the girl looked. With her slender appearance and the constant smile on her face, it would be easy for one to mistake her as a fragile little girl. In that regard Toshinori was reminded of himself.

Despite how difficult the job was, Toshinori kept himself smiling.

"It isn't your fault that you didn't save him, young Uzumaki."

Naruto's smile faded slightly and the young girl closed her eyes. "It might have been Sasuke's choice to join Orochimaru but it was my job to knock some sense into him. Friends stop each other from making the stupidest mistake in their life, right? Orochimaru is that mistake for Sasuke."

"There is one thing that I have learnt in my long years as a Hero, young Uzumaki," Toshinori grimaced as he recalled all of the people that he failed to save, rescue and locate. "You can't save everyone."

"Who did you fail to save, All Might?" Naruto asked.

' _I know my mother and stepfather blamed you for what happened to my older brother, but my mother should have known better to leave Minato-niisan alone. Mother said it herself that Minato-niisan's father would do anything to get him.'_

"There are a lot of people that I failed to save but there was a little boy that I failed to rescue from his own family members," Toshinori informed her.

 _Now that I think about it, Naruto looks similar to the missing boy and Jiraiya-san mentioned that Naruto's father name is Minato._ He frowned and rubbed his chin, wondering if it would be possible for him to take a hair from his student. It was a small chance but it wasn't a coincidence that Naruto looked like the missing boy.

It couldn't be a coincidence that her father's name was Minato.

When his student turned away from him, Toshinori pulled a single strand of hair from the girl and pocketed in his pockets. The boy's mother was gone, having passed away three years ago, but Minato's sister and stepfather were still alive.

They deserved to have closure of the case.

* * *

Todoroki closed his eyes as he rubbed the shampoo through his hair, soaking in the pleasant spray of water. It had been a stressful day with their training and it had been even more stressful when he caught sight of the shorts that Naruto had been wearing during her training. He didn't know if Naruto's shorts had always hugged her figure in that way or if he was only starting to realize now.

It probably was the latter. He always tried his hardest not to stare his girlfriend's figure, always keeping his eyes focused on her bright blue eyes.

Around him in the other stalls, several of the other boys were cleaning themselves off as well. After changing out of their costumes in the locker room, all of the teens had retreated to the 1-A dorms to shower and get into some clothes to do as they pleased for the rest of the day. Todoroki didn't know whether he wanted to just sit and watch movies with Naruto in her room like they always did, or to take her out.

In the weeks since they started their relationship, he still hadn't taken Naruto out on a proper date. It wasn't just because they didn't have any time but Shouto had no idea of where to take her. Expensive restaurants wasn't something he could picture Naruto going to. Maybe the movies? Naruto really did like action movies.

"This feels soo good!" Kaminari groaned, snapping Todoroki from his musing.

Satou grunted. "You can say that again!"

"What are you guys planning on doing for the rest of the day?" Izuku asked from the stall next to him.

"I'm going to chill out!" Kaminari announced.

"Same!" Sero agreed. "I heard the girls saying that some of them planned to hang out, so not all of the girls will be in today—the television is ours for the day!"

"I'm in the mood to bake!" Satou declared.

"I'm going to do more research for Jiraiya-sama! And maybe search for new porn in my room."

Todoroki could only keep press his lips into a very thin line as everyone groaned at Mineta's words. As long as Mineta kept his eyes fixated on the screen and made no attempts to grope Naruto or the other girls then Shouto didn't care one bit about what the boy planned to do. He could even go to the club for all Shouto cared.

"Why can't you guys act like guys?" Mineta complained.

"No decent person would talk about searching up inappropriate material like that! Or be so casual about working for a well-known pervert!" Iida scolded him.

Mineta growled. "I'm trying to figure out if you are a human or a robot! What about the rest of you?"

He really had a bad feeling about where this was going to lead to, but Todoroki knew that if he didn't say anything then this conversation was just going to get worse. It would either lead to Iida going out of the stall to give a better scolding at Mineta or it might lead him to freeze the whole bathroom because of what that pervert would say.

"What do you consider is a normal 'guy' conversation for you?" Izuku asked.

"How about we talk about the girls? Have you seen how hot Uzu—"

"Talk about Naruto or any of the other girls like that then I will personally freeze you," Todoroki hissed, earning sighs from the boys and a snort from Bakugou. The desire to freeze everything around him was great but the mismatch boy held himself back, focusing more on washing his hair. While freezing the bathroom was a good idea, he knew Bakugou would only end up making fun of him even more.

Mineta corrected himself. "—the amazing girls in our class?"

"What about them?" he asked.

"Don't pretend that you haven't thought of them in that way before! Especially you, Todoroki! I saw the way you looked at Uzumaki when she jumped over that wall to save that boy…"

Todoroki could only keep his mouth shut while his body temperature shoot up at the reminder. Till this day, his brain still had the image forever imprinted in his mind. The way the towel hugged her figure, her flushed cheeks and the embarrassment in those blue eyes was still stuck in his brain. Even when he was around Naruto, he still couldn't help but return back to that memory.

He needed someone in their class to figure out after three months because Todoroki really couldn't admit to Naruto that the image of her in that towel had been the thing that made him blush.

"You shouldn't think or talk about our female classmates in that way!" Iida scolded.

"Come on, who do you all think is the hottest in our class?" Mineta asked, ignoring their classmate scolding.

Tokoyami sighed. "Do you mean who do we find the most attractive?"

Bright blue eyes and a cheeky smile flashed before Todoroki's eyes when those words were spoken outloud. He didn't know about the other boys but Naruto had always been attractive in his eyes. With her bright blond hair and bright blue eyes, he honestly thought the girl could have come from another world. Even when she had been in her saddest state, he still saw Naruto as being a very beautiful girl. It was a fact that anyone with eyes would say.

Of course if he said that then the other boys might figure out his relationship.

"What do you think, Shouto? You seemed to be extra comfy with Naruto lately."

Todoroki felt his lips twitched when he recalled of what happened the night before, where his girlfriend had her eyes tearing up at an action movie in his computer. He still had no understanding of what part of the movie had made Naruto tear up and his girlfriend refused to tell him the reason. "Naruto is very pretty but I don't understand what comfort has to do with anything."

"Denki saw the two of you cuddling on the couch the other night! You guys were watching some American sitcom!"

 _The other night?_ His face flushed a bright shade of red as Todoroki recalled what happened the other night. The two of them had just came back from their respective visits and Naruto had the mood to watch some television series. He tried to leave her be but Naruto turned those large blue eyes at him, asking him if he wanted to watch it with her. There was no chance for him to say no when his girlfriend looked at him like that.

So he took a seat beside her and Naruto pecked him lightly on the lips, not caring one bit that there was a chance someone might catch them. Then Naruto stretched her legs over his lap, leaning back on the cushion and Todoroki knew he should have stopped himself. He really should have stopped himself from rubbing her legs as they watched that movie.

Shaking his head, Todoroki forced himself to focus on the present situation. He was in the baths with the other boys and his relationship with Naruto might be forced out in the open.

Ojirou raised his voice. "You know Mineta brought up a valid question because you aren't exactly the most warmest person, Todoroki and you only let Naruto call you Shouto. You don't exactly like to touch people but you have no problem with showing a lot of emotions and touches around Naruto. Do you like her?"

Todoroki contemplated for a good minute on whether to admit his feelings to the rest of his classmates. He couldn't deny his feelings, not when he was already in a relationship with Naruto. His classmates were also observant, after all Ojirou was right to point out that he didn't make an effort to touch people. There never seemed any point for him to make much effort when it comes to touching people.

The only people he liked to touch was his mother and Naruto.

"I like Naruto," Todoroki admitted, allowing his lips curl into a smile. "She always tries to be there for me and she always seem to forgive people even if they treat her badly. She gives comfort even when she was dealing with her own shit."

"Sounds like you _love_ her," Kirishima sang. "Are you going to confess to her?"

Todoroki felt his cheeks burned at the mention of the word love. He might have told Naruto about his feelings and Naruto returned his feelings, but he didn't feel comfortable of saying it out loud for everyone to hear. Perhaps it was his upbringing but Todoroki found something like this to be private and should be said in the comfort of their own privacy.

"No."

 _I already confessed to her so it isn't a lie._

"Why not?" Sero asked. "Everyone can see Naruto likes you! And if she rejects you then none of us have a chance!"

"I wish a babe like Naruto would give me the same attention that she gives you!" Mineta grumbled.

Bakugou growled. "Can you guys stop talking about Whiskers and Half and Half Bastard? We have got three years to become heroes and you want to waste your time by gossiping about it!"

"Are you jealous that Naruto doesn't see you in that way?" Mineta asked.

Explosions set off in the other stall beside Todoroki, informing everyone of just how furious that Bakugou was of that accusation. Todoroki frowned, wondering if there was some truth behind his words. He knew there was nothing going on between Bakugou and Naruto. The two of them acted like siblings at times and could even look like brother and sister if his girlfriend dyed her hair like Bakugou.

"I never fucking liked Whiskers in that way!" Bakugou snarled. "She acts too much like my fucking mother for me to like her. Beside, Whiskers is so in love with Half and Half Bastard that she would never look at any of you sorry losers in that way."

Todoroki could only smile at the words spoken by his classmate.

* * *

The sight of Eisuke sitting beside a sleeping Itachi was one that Naruto never imagined she would ever see. With the amount of work her cousin did, it was even a miracle he had the time to send her text messages asking her about her day. She didn't even know her cousin was that close to Tomoko for him to visit her.

She knew she should just stop herself but she couldn't help it.

"What are you doing here, Eisuke?" Naruto took a seat on the other chair beside Itachi. She kept her eyes focused on her cousin's bright green eyes, not allowing herself to steal a glance at the sleeping boy that laid between them. This was not the time for her to worry about Itachi's health.

Eisuke sighed and smiled widely but Naruto could see the worry shining through those bright green eyes. It seemed just like her younger self, her cousin had the habit of not allowing people to see that something was bothering him. Had something happened during work? Was Kairi hurt? Naruto knew those two were closer than the employer and employee even if her cousin denied it.

"Well Kairi got injured on the job so I asked Tomoko-chan to go and take care of her…I might have even threatened to tell the nurses about her experience of dating a Hero's son if she didn't do it," Eisuke admitted, running his hand through his hair. "She made me stay here because apparently she doesn't trust me not to panic about my own employee's health! Can you believe her?"

The smile might be plastered on his face but the anger and frustration leaked out in his voice. _If you talked to Tomoko like that then yes I can believe she would do this to you._ From what Naruto had seen of Tomoko in her limited interactions in the hospital, the young woman did not like it when someone breathed down her neck.

"Eisuke, don't you think it is because you're panicking like this that Tomoko isn't allowing you to come with her to watch her do her magic with Kairi?" Eisuke spluttered at the comment, looking visibly insulted at her suggestions. He folded his arms and if Naruto didn't know any better than she would say her cousin was pouting at her allegations.

The temptation to take a photo of this and send it to Akane was strong but Naruto held herself back.

No one deserved to get relentlessly teased by that little girl.

"If you want my opinion, I think she wants me to protect Sleeping Beauty from the nurses," Eisuke grumbled, flickering his eyes at the sleeping boy beside him. Naruto raised her eyebrow, pressed her lips into a thin line and stared at her sleeping ANBU guard. "She has been complaining non-stop in our texts about how the nurses seemed more focus on sneaking a glance at her handsome patient then doing their jobs properly."

Naruto nodded. The nurses did have the habit of popping in unexpectedly, claiming that they had questions to ask Tomoko when really they wanted another glance at Itachi. Her relative would always raise her eyebrow, smile tightly and then asked them why didn't they ask the other doctors on duty, who were near them. It was always funny to watch those nurses to whittle at her words.

Itachi always seemed grateful for that small act from Tomoko.

"Did Tomoko actually wrote handsome patient to you?" Naruto asked, stealing a glance at Itachi. The man still seemed to be asleep, which earned a small frown from the girl. Was it wrong she wanted to see Itachi's reaction? She always wondered if the older boy could ever stop acting like a robot and show some proper emotions like embarrassment.

Eisuke shook his head. "But it is implied when she mentions that nurses keep checking on her newest patient and looks at him like _he is some kind of tasty dessert on display!_ " He snorted. "Tomoko actually said that in our text message if you can believe it. The only other person she is this overprotective about is her brother."

"Did she tell you if she is any closer to finding a cure in Itachi's illness?" Naruto asked, changing the subject entirely. Placing the yellow daises on the vase, she turned to her cousin and raised her eyebrows at him. He might want to rant about how unfair Tomoko was being towards him, but she came here to know if there was any progress in Itachi's case.

Eisuke sighed. "She confirmed that the blindness is a backlash from his use of his Kekkai Genkai. She is still trying to figure out if his illness is due to his Kekkai Genkai being incompatible with his body."

 _I don't understand a word of that last sentence._

"Sounds complicated," Naruto admitted.

Her cousin smiled and ruffled her hair, earning a larger smile from the blonde. The smile faded on Eisuke's face faded when he looked at the clock, which made Naruto tilt her head. Blue eyes softened as her cousin just smiled at her. The way his eyes was constantly looking at the clock told Naruto just how worried he was for his employee.

"Your friend might be stubborn but Tomoko doesn't know when to give up on a person," Eisuke said, snapping Naruto from her train of thought. "She would go through hell to save her patients and that is why I won't let anyone treat my employees if it isn't her. At least when I put them in her hands then I know she tried her hardest."

"Is it obvious that I have my doubts about her capability?" Naruto asked. "I just don't want Itachi to die, not when he cheered me up in those dark nights in my apartment—he saved me."

Her cousin observed her, lips pressed into a thin line and green eyes softened. Naruto blinked when the man stood up from his spot, stridden towards her and wrapped his arms around her. She took in a deep breath and relaxed under his hold while the man rubbed circles around her upper back. Naruto looked up and smiled at her older cousin.

"Everyone have their doubts when it comes to saving the people that we love," Eisuke informed her. "But you should always have faith in your family members. Once Tomoko is given a job to do then she will go the extra mile to get it done. In Middle School, Tomoko was always the one that did the extra research for her homework and would suck up to the teachers to get more information for the exams."

"Did you and Tomoko go to the same middle school?"

Eisuke nodded. "Tomoko was the one that helped me to prepare for my high school exams. She used to spray me with water whenever I get an answer wrong, which Dad found funny and he would just encourage Tomoko to continue with the spraying 'cause an idiot deserve to get sprayed if he got such an easy question wrong."

Naruto giggled as the image of her fourteen-year-old cousin being sprayed with water whenever he got an answer wrong played in her mind. The sad thing was that she could imagine Kenji encouraging someone to spray the water on his son just because he thought his son deserved it. For a brief moment, she wondered if her mother would have done the same thing on her.

She wondered if her mother had been brilliant in school.

Naruto knew that her father had been amazing but there was no one that could tell her anything about her father.

"What are you thinking about, Guardian?" Naruto blinked when her cousin placed his hand on top of her head. A large smile played on his lips and Naruto flickered her eyes to Itachi, wondering if the boy was awake. She shook her head. "C'mon tell me about what is going through your little head. Is it a boy? Because I am willing to give a little talk about what happens if he messes with your heart…"

"I was thinking of the Provisional License Exam," Naruto lied. She knew her cousin would feel a little bit sorry for her if he thinks that she was hurting over the fact that she didn't know what her Mum had been like in school. So it was better for her to lie and say that she was worrying about the exam, at least he wouldn't feel sorry for her.

There was also no way in hell that Naruto was going to tell him about Shouto. She loved her cousin, she really did but he had the habit of babbling any gossip to his family.

No way in hell was she going to let Kenji know about her relationship until Naruto felt completely comfortable in her relationship with Shouto.

Eisuke raised his eyebrow. "Really? Out of everyone in your year group, I think you will have the least problems. Unlike the other members of your class…well your use of Chakra gives you the advantages. The other schools might have a problem when it comes to hunting you down because your abilities are versatile."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Naruto asked.

Her cousin laughed nervously and avoided her blue eyes, suddenly finding the sight of a sleeping Itachi more interesting than ever. Naruto frowned, tilted her head and tapped her feet against the floor, waiting for Eisuke to spill the beans to her. She knew from his wording that there was a chance that the schools were going to target them.

"I guess I shouldn't tell you, but there is nothing that you or your classmates can do about this," Eisuke admitted, pacing across the room. "The first thing all the schools do is hunt the students of Yuuei High because everyone knows your classmates' Quirks."

Naruto placed her hands against her chin. Her cousin hovered beside her, hands placed on her shoulders as he tried to reassure the whiskered girl that everything was going to be okay. His green eyes shone with so much regret but Naruto could only flash him a smile.

They were going to be fine because Naruto knew her classmates were the best.

They were going to get their license.

* * *

A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter.


	61. Chapter 61

A/N: I would like to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows.

* * *

When Uzumaki Naruto helped to murder All For One, it had been understandable for Tomura to be upset if anyone asked Kurogiri. All For One was not just a mentor to his successor but also a father figure to the young man, taking him in after the heroes failed to save Tomura. The man had been more close to Tomura than to his own biological son.

His own biological son didn't even know that his father had been murdered.

Tomura wanted to ruin the deal between them and their potential ally, all because the girl had been the reason for All For One's death. It wouldn't have been such a big deal if Kurogiri didn't know All For One had big plans of using Uzumaki Naruto in ruining the hero society. Her Quirk, background and even her father would have ruined All Might as All For One claimed in their rare conversations.

It was why he was now calling their ally and figure out a good compromise between them.

The call finally went through and a voice picked up on the other line, and the screen barely gave a hint of the man that All For One worked with. The only thing Kurogiri could see was a cane leaning to the side of the table, but the man had his back turned away from them. "You better have a good reason to contact me."

Irritation leaked out of the man's voice and for a brief moment Kurogiri wondered if this was his brightest idea yet. Perhaps he should have waited more, maybe when the man was in a good mood.

Kurogiri took in a deep breath. "I apologize but I feel the need to form you of the current status of Uzumaki Naruto. It has been quite difficult for us to get a hold of you."

The man made no comment nor turned around to face him, only the sound of his light breaths gave any indication about his desire to know of what the girl had done in the last couple of days. Kurogiri hesitated, uncertain on whether he should just continue on or wait for the man to make some comment. This was actually the second time he made contact with this ally but Kurogiri could not get a good read of the man.

"If that successor wants to use my ninja then he needs to fulfil the bargain All For One made with me," the man said, his voice barely betrayed his emotions. "The jinchuuriki must be handed back to me and only then will I help you to accomplish your goal of destroying that hero society."

Kurogiri could only grimace at those words and inhaled once more. "Tomura wishes to kill Uzumaki Naruto even though All For One made it clear from the very beginning that he wants the girl alive."

"I presume there is a reason that the successor wishes to go against the wishes of All For One," the man turned the chair half way and Kurogiri frowned when he saw that one of the arms was bandaged. "Tell me what did the Jinchuuriki do to get his irritation."

"She helped to murder All For One," Kurogiri replied. "From what Tomura saw, he believed that the girl must have written some characters on the floor surrounding All For One and caused him to be bound in place as another person killed him."

The man made no comment about his words, only tapping his finger against his seat. Kurogiri could only stand still, wondering if the man planned to terminate their contract or if he had a better solution on what to do with the girl. Despite All For One's death, the man was still considered to be one of their allies.

This man was probably one of their strongest allies.

"That is a dilemma," the man let out a deep breath. "I had presumed since she lived in Japan now that her skills had only dropped, but instead the girl is proving that she is truly a descendent of the Uzumaki Clan. Killing her isn't an option right and if you kill that girl then this deal is over."

Kurogiri grimaced. "Then do you have a suggestion on how we can try to calm Tomura down? I believe the dealing with emotions is your area of expertise."

"Emotions is the death of duty," the man declared, his voice carried the tiredness that only an old man would carry. "However I'm willing to come to a compromise. Deliver the girl to me and I promise you that Tomura-san can kill her once I'm done with her."

Kurogiri could only frown at the coldness of the man's words. A month ago, the man had made it quite clear that he wanted the girl alive and wished for her to be alive. Now this old man had no problems with killing what he considered to be his prized weapon. He wondered if it would be appropriate to ask him his reasons.

Tomura might ask this question anyway.

"I thought the girl was important to you," Kurogiri kept his tone line. "Why are you willing to throw away your most powerful weapon?"

The man raised his eyebrow. "It is not the girl that I care about, it is the beast inside of her. The girl chose to make the village weak by running away to a distant country, breaking the oath she made on the day that she became a genin. Why should I allow her to live? The village must always come first."

"I'm afraid I don't understand but how can you still use the beast if she dies?"

"Once I extract the beast from her then I will transfer it to one of the subordinates. After the extraction, the girl will be weakened," the man informed him. "She will be so weak that even your Boss can kill her. Now of course this deal won't hold if he kills her before I can get my hands on her."

"I will make sure to inform him," Kurogiri declared.

"Uzumaki Naruto cannot die with the beast inside of her."

Kurogiri nodded and he hoped that Tomura would follow through with this man's offer. It would be too problematic if they had to find a new partner that would be willing to help them with their cause.

* * *

"You look like shit, Whiskers."

Bakugou had his eyes locked on Naruto. Todoroki stared at Naruto with concern, noticing that the girl had been acting strange since she came back to the dorms.

Between these boys, Naruto rubbed the sides of her head as her body leaned slightly closer to Todoroki. Blue eyes flickered around the area, analysing and seizing up their competition. There were so many people in the area alone, too many for her to give an estimate of the number. She couldn't even tell from looking at them what their Quirks might be.

Bakugou and Todoroki glanced at each other and then to Naruto.

"Did something happened, Naruto?"

"If you keep acting like a weirdo then those losers will think that I fucking did something to you again," Bakugou grumbled. "If you are fucking nervous then you are an idiot, because you are not some weak little shit that can't defend herself."

Todoroki sighed and poked the girl in the ribs. The former kunoichi blinked and raised her eyebrows in confusion at her boyfriend. The younger boy sighed and gestured to Bakugou, who now narrowed his eyes at the girl for not paying attention to him.

"You didn't pay a single attention to what I just said, didn't you Whiskers?" Bakugou grumbled.

"You say something?" Naruto blinked and knitted her eyebrows at him. The blond-haired male growled at the smiling blonde, which earned a sigh from the people all around them. The relationship between Bakugou and Naruto was a relationship that almost everyone in Class 1A tried and failed to understand.

No one could understand if those two were just frenemies or if they were just two pair of siblings that refused to show they loved each other.

"I said if you are fucking nervous then you are an idiot—"

"So you were worried about me? I feel so special Bakugou- _chan_ ," Bakugou growled at her words, his hands clenched into a tight ball of fist as Naruto flashed a cheeky smile at him. Their classmates looked at Naruto like she was insane.

"You must be losing your mind if you think I give a shit…"

"I love you too." Bakugou growled at Naruto, red eyes flared with annoyance while Todoroki sighed at the antics of the two teens. The mismatch boy rubbed the sides of his head, looking almost as if he wanted to be anywhere but near the two blonds. Shaking his head, Todoroki darted his eyes to Izuku while his girlfriend jumped up and down. "Don't worry Bakugou- _chan—"_

"—Don't call me that!" Bakugou grumbled.

Naruto ignored the comment like always and continued on without a care in the world. "—I'm not nervous about this exam! I'm excited for the exams!"

"Then did you stay the whole night thinking about the exam?" Izuku asked, tilting his head at them.

Naruto nodded, blue eyes closed and a large smile playing on her lips, and Bakugou snorted at the girl's response. Swirling her head at her fellow blonde, the whiskered girl put her hands on her hips and demanded. "And what is that supposed to mean, Explosive Head?"

"I thought you and Half and Half Bastard would be too busy making o—" Naruto shoved her hand over Bakugou's mouth as her cheeks burned bright red at the accusation made by her friend. A quick glance at her boyfriend's red cheeks told the whiskered girl that Shouto was just as embarrassed as she was. It seemed like it might not be either of them that would spill the secret, it would be Bakugou.

"I wonder if I can get my license," Mineta sighed, closed his eyes and tightened his grip around his backpack.

Aizawa twisted and bowed till his eyes were at the same eye level to his student, his arms resting lazily around his side. The red capillaries of his eyes seemed to be more visible than ever and Naruto wondered what was the cause of his lack of sleep. "Mineta, it is not about whether or not you can. Go and get it!"

Mineta vigorously nodded, hands balled into a fist and teeth shivering at the intensity of their teacher's stare. "O-Of course!"

Aizawa nodded and stood up from his knelt position, his dark eyes scanning the expression of his students. Out of all the students standing in front of the Hero, only Naruto showed visible signs of excitement of what was to come. The blond-haired girl seemed to be almost bouncing on her feet, a large smile playing on her lips.

He sighed.

"If you can pass this test and get your provisional licenses," Aizawa began. His students stiffened and straightened their backs, all of their eyes were now completely focused on him. "Then you novice eggs will become chicks. You will hatch into semi-pros, so do your best."

Naruto beamed as her classmates erupted into cheers and chatter. There was no way she wouldn't do her best when it came to these exams. If she didn't want to get into trouble for another incident like Kamino then she needed to get this license.

She flickered her eyes to Todoroki, a smile playing on her lips when the younger boy turned his attention onto her. Her lips curled into a larger smile. Her smile faded when Todoroki began to chew on his bottom lips, eyebrows pressed together and a single wrinkle appeared on his forehead. Her boyfriend only made this type of expression whenever he worried about something.

Naruto glided toward her boyfriend, leaned closer to him and tilted her head. "What are you thinking about? You're not nervous about this, are you?"

Todoroki blinked, his mismatch eyes growing wide at the sight of her. Naruto pouted, shaking her head at the realization that the younger boy didn't even pay much attention at the fact that she was right beside him. It didn't actually annoy her that Shouto wasn't paying attention to her. This exam was a big deal for everyone so it made sense for him to be focus on the exam.

"You," Naruto flushed pink and Todoroki smiled at the sight. Shouto shook his head. "I was thinking that out of everyone here, you have the best chance of passing these exams."

Naruto beamed and flickered her eyes around the area, searching for any signs that their classmates was focused on them. The constant chatter between her classmates meant there was a small chance she could get away with hugging him for his compliment. She furiously shook her head. Even if there was a small chance she could get away with it, there was always a chance that they would get caught.

She really wanted the secrecy of this relationship to last six months.

"You also got a pretty good shot of passing the exam," Naruto declared, lips curled into a large smile. She darted her eyes at their classmates, grinned when she saw that no one was paying attention to them and tiptoed. "Wanna see a movie after this?"

Todoroki tilted his head, mismatch eyes locked on hers, and nodded. She grinned at the response. She smiled even wider when the younger boy flushed a bright shade of pink. _I haven't done anything and he makes this kind of expression._ If she was like Ino then she would be constantly touching him for him to know her feelings. What would be his reaction if she constantly did that to him? Would the blushes fade away and be replaced with indifference?

She really didn't like the thought of that. It was fun to be the only one who could draw this kind of behaviour out of him.

"Let's all call out the usual cheer!" Kirishima declared, waving his hand for everyone to gather around. The red-haired boy had his hands clenched into a fist, elbow drawn at a ninety degree angle. The other students grinned and circled the boy. "Ready? Plus…"

"ULTRA!"

A loud voice screamed over their cheer and almost everyone in Class A jumped. Wincing, Naruto fixated her attention on the buzzcut boy that joined in with their cheers. It was obvious from his uniform and dark hat that he was one of their competitors, another student taking the exams.

"You shouldn't just barge in on other people's huddles, Inasa," scolded another teenage male in the same uniform. _Wow, his eyes are really small._ She tilted her head when the purple-haired boy flickered his eyes at her, lips curled into a sneer and Naruto wondered if the two of them met. Did she do something to annoy this guy? Because Naruto swore this was the first time she met him.

Inasa froze, his smile still stuck on his face. "Whoops! I'm very, extremely sorry for this!'

The boy bowed so low and hard, after saying those words, that he smacked his forehead hard against the concrete gound. Blue eyes grew large when the boy stood up from his bow, blood dribbling down from the side of his forehead. _Damn, this guy reminds me of Bushy Bow with his extremeness._ She forced herself to smile, not willing for all of their classmates to know about her concern for this boy.

She strolled to Inasa, tilted her head and asked. "Are you okay?"

Inasa blinked and stared at her for a good couple of seconds before flushing a light shade of red. She knitted her eyebrows together, tilted her head to the side even further before darting her eyes to Bakugou and Izuku. The blond-haired boy snorted, looking almost faintly amused at the action, and flickered his eyes to Todoroki.

Naruto frowned and followed his eyes to her boyfriend. At first glance, there seemed to be nothing wrong with Shouto. But with a closer inspection, the blue-eyed girl noticed the balled fist and the slight flare in his nostrils. _What is wrong with Shouto?_ She chewed on her bottom lips.

"I'm extremely well!" Inasa declared, drawing her attention back towards him. "Man, you were amazing in the Sports Festival! And the way you fought against that villain in television was just awesome!"

She smiled at the compliment, blue eyes twinkling as Inasa flushed a brighter shade of red. Her classmates sighed, shaking their heads as they darted their eyes to Todoroki. Only Mina stared at the two teens with a small sparkle in her eyes, the same sparkle she always had whenever she thought that there was a potential for romance.

"Thank you, Buzzcut!" Naruto finally said.

Inasa smiled at her words, looking pleased at her words.

"Inasa, there's no need for you to try and flirt with her," the purple-haired boy declared, lips curled into a sneer as he directed his eyes towards her. "We're going to be late."

Naruto blinked and knitted her eyebrows, not understanding one bit of how Inasa was flirting with her. She darted her eyes to Todoroki. Her boyfriend had a scowl playing on his lips, telling her just how much he didn't like the comment made by Inasa's classmate.

She had a bad feeling that this exam was going to be Shouto's undoing.

* * *

"You're an idiot if you are getting jealous over that weirdo."

Todoroki blinked and turned his head to look at Bakugou. The blond-haired boy had his eyes fixated on the fading back of the members of Shiketsu High School, his lips curled into an ugly scowl and his hands clenched into a tight fist. Izuku just looked at the two of them with confusion.

 _Jealous? I guess that tight feeling was jealously._ He flickered his eyes towards Naruto. The blond-haired girl was currently talking to Mina, who kept flickering her eyes back and forth between him and their classmate. Had he been jealous of the fact that Inasa was standing so close to Naruto? It did annoy Todoroki that he couldn't stand so close or wrap his arms around Naruto without their classmates finding out about the bet.

"I'm not jealous."

Bakugou snorted and stared at him like he was the biggest idiot in the world. "Not jealous? If you want people to figure out that there is something going on between the two of you then you are making it fucking obvious."

"Kacchan, I thought you said that you didn't care about the state of Todoroki-kun and Naruto's relationship," Izuku whispered, flickering his eyes at Naruto and Mina. Green eyes shown with curiosity while Todoroki raised his eyebrow at the blond-haired boy.

Bakugou scowled. "I don't fucking care but I owe Whiskers this much."

' _You know the funny thing about Explosive Head, Shouto? He says one thing but he means the other thing.'_

Todoroki didn't know why Naruto and him ended up having a conversation about it, but now staring at their scowling classmate—he understood what his girlfriend meant. Despite being foul-tempered and swearing like a sailor, Bakugou cared a lot about Naruto and her feelings. There was nothing romantic about his feelings, not with the way those two argue but they cared for each other.

When Todoroki thought about it, Naruto and Bakugou were quite similar to each other. It wasn't their similar facial features but the way those two had no problems of shouting their feelings to the world. It was in the way those two constantly swear at each other, pretending not to care for the other but when the reality was the opposite.

"What the fuck are you smiling about?" Bakugou grumbled.

Todoroki tilted his head. "Naruto and you are very similar to each other."

"What the hell? Not at all!" Bakugou snarled. " Shut up!"

Izuku smiled hesitantly while Todoroki regarded Bakugou. Despite the annoyance and anger leaking out of his tone, Shouto could hear the underlying embarrassment in his voice. Barely visible but Todoroki found from observing Naruto that he needed to listen carefully and look at people carefully to understand their intentions.

It was probably why he didn't like Inasa because that boy made it clear about his crush on the blond-haired girl.

"Eraser? Eraser, is that you?"

A smiling, green-haired woman in a hero costume strolled towards their class, a large smile playing on her lips and a friendly wave directed towards them. Aizawa froze, hunched his back and darted his eyes around the area, which was strange if you asked Todoroki. Not once since they started school had he ever seen their teacher made that kind of expression.

He flickered his eyes at Naruto and sighed when he saw the mischievous glint shining in those blue eyes.

"I have seen you on TV and at the Sports Festival," the woman declared, waving. "But it has been a while since I have seen you in person."

Naruto smiled even wider. "Aizawa-sensei, do you _have an_ admirer?"

"Uzumaki, if you wish to gain my trust again then you'll be quiet," Aizawa hissed, eyes darting around the area. Naruto laughed and the teacher glared at her, not looking one bit amused at her actions. The man slumped his shoulders, realizing that there was no place for him to hide.

The woman stopped right in front of them, face completely straight when she said: "Let's get married."

"No," Aizawa replied immediately.

Mina squealed at the interaction, caramel eyes sparkling with joy at the sight in front of them. Todoroki knew that his classmate enjoyed the idea of shipping people, but he didn't actual see anything romantic about their behaviour. He flickered his eyes to Naruto, who looked almost as joyful as Mina. _Is there something that I'm missing about this interaction?_

He furrowed his eyebrows and observed the two heroes. Shouto frowned when he still found nothing between the two heroes that indicated they liked each other.

The woman didn't falter at the speed in which Aizawa rejected her, instead she just clutched her stomach and let out a loud laugh. _I really don't think she was being serious about the proposal._ Todoroki wondered if he should inform Naruto of his observation or allow her to just imagine that there was something going on between them. It would be cruel of him to ruin her thoughts.

So not telling her was probably the best option.

Aizawa sighed and pinched his nose. "You're hard to talk to, as usual, Joke."

"It's the Smile Hero, Ms. Joke!' Izuku clenched his hands into a fist and stared star struck at the young woman. "Her Quirk is called Outburst! She forces those near her to laugh, dulling their thinking and their movements! Her fights against villains are full of craziness!"

Todoroki nodded while Naruto leaned closer to him. He rubbed her shoulders unconsciously, earning a smile from the blond-haired girl and a sigh of annoyance from Bakugou. Tilting his head, Todoroki raised his eyebrow at Bakugou. His classmate just shook his head and mumbled a couple of things under his breath.

The woman grinned, gave a thumbs up as she said. "If you marry me, then we can make a happy family with never-ending laughter!"

"A family like that can't be happy," Aizawa deadpanned.

Ms. Joke snorted, looking amused at the response of the male hero. The woman smiled even wider when she heard the boisterous laugh from Naruto. Aizawa narrowed his eyes at the laughing girl, looking almost torn between shooting his cloth at Naruto or to just find a place to hide.

Tsuyu tapped her finger against her chin and observed. ""The two of you seem close."

Joke waved her hand and smiled at them. "Our agencies used to be close to each other!" She clasped her hands together and her eyes glinted with mischief as a blush formed on her face. "In our cycle of helping and being helped, our mutual love for each other bloomed—"

"No, it didn't!" Aizawa grunted.

Naruto smiled and Todoroki knew from that exact smile that his girlfriend was planning so many ways of either teasing their teacher or to get their teacher together with Ms. Joke. It seemed like for some strange reason that his girlfriend had the desire to become matchmakers for their teacher.

Aizawa and Ms. Joke must have noticed it too because Aizawa squinted his eyes at the blond-haired girl while Ms. Joke beamed at the girl.

"I like you!" Ms. Joke declared, pointing at Naruto. "You seem to have a wonderful sense of humour!"

"Don't encourage Uzumaki." Aizawa barked. He shook his head and focused his attention on the smiling hero. "Joke, I presume since you are here then that means your students are also doing the exams."

Ms. Joke nodded and turned her head around. She raised her hand up, gesturing for a bunch of other teens to come forward. There must have been around five other teens coming towards them, but none of them stood as much as the black-haired boy leading them. The way those black eyes stared at Naruto and the others made Todoroki feel weary.

"Come and meet the Yuuei kids, you guys!"

The dark-haired teenage boy grinned at them, black eyes shone with excitement. His eyes seemed to linger especially on Naruto and Todoroki's eyebrows twitched when he saw the way the boy seemed to be fixated on Naruto's legs.

Bakugou snorted at him, looking almost faintly amused at his behaviour. Shaking his head, Bakugou tilted his head towards Naruto and fixated his eyes on the smiling black-haired boy. His voice dropped to a whisper but it was still loud enough even for Todoroki to hear.

"You also noticed how fake that asshole is, right?"

The blond-haired girl nodded. "You think I don't know when someone wears a mask? I have been mastering the art since I was six. This guy is good but we need to watch out for him later."

"Think he is going to be after us?" Bakugou grumbled.

"I know he is," Naruto flickered her eyes at Mina and shook her head when she saw the way the pink-skinned girl beamed at the boy. "You know what Uzushiokage told me the other day? Those people are going to hunt us down because they know our Quirks. Bastard might just lure us into a false sense of security and then try to annihilate us later."

"Let him fucking try," Bakugou declared.

 _That makes sense._ Todoroki pressed his lips into a thin line and watched as the teen made his rounds of introduction to their classmates. It made sense to a certain point but the way those black eyes kept flickering to Naruto told Todoroki that the boy also have some interest in his girlfriend.

Todoroki balled his hands into a fist when the black-haired boy grabbed hold of Naruto's hands. Blue eyes grew large at the action while those black-eyes seemed to stare only at Naruto's bright blue eyes. _Don't do anything reckless._ He chanted to himself as the two teens stared at each other.

"My name is Shindo Yo," he announced. "And you are even prettier in real life. When we are done with the Provisional License Exam, will you go on a date with me?"

His girlfriend blinked and blinked at those words while Mina squealed at the directness in which the boy asked the blond-haired girl out. Todoroki tightened his fist, taking several deep breaths in and forced himself not to freeze the boy for daring to ask the girl out.

Bakugou let out a snort, looking faintly amused at Todoroki's behaviour.

"Sorry but I like someone else," Naruto declared, keeping her eyes fixed on Shindou. He relaxed his grip at the reminder that Naruto liked him. He trusted his girlfriend but it annoyed him that so many boys could show their interest towards her. If it wasn't for the fact he didn't want to tell Naruto about his thoughts during that incident then he would wrap his arms around her.

"Oh? Are you her boyfriend?" Yo asked, swirling his head at Bakugou.

The blond-haired boy spluttered and gagged at the question. "You fucking insane? Whiskers is a pain in the ass—"

"Explosive Head, don't make me blush! You're like the angry older brother I never had!"

"—And cut the fucking bullshit!" Bakugou finished, glaring at Shindou. He swirled his head at his fellow blonde. "And I never fucking said those words ! I don't want an annoying little sister like you."

"Love you too, Big Brother!"

* * *

A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter.


	62. Chapter 62

A/N: I would like to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows as well as everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows.

* * *

Naruto pressed her lips into a thin line as she stared at the empty area around her. The Provisional Exam was now in the first part of the exam, and just like Eisuke informed her, all of her classmates had been targeted. It was understandable when this part of the exam had been designed to reduce the number of participants to a hundred—just only six percent of the original number.

The fact that it was a free-for-all round that only needed them to take out at least two targets with the six balls they were given in a limited time frame of eight hours made it even worse.

It was barely a minute into the Exam when Naruto found herself separated from the rest of her class due to the earthquake caused by that bastard Yo.

Naruto crouched down, blue eyes closed as she tried to sense for any nearby enemies or for any of her classmates. It was her bad luck that none of her classmates had chakra. With the way things were, they were exposed and separated. The chances of her helping them dwindled, which meant that there might be a higher chance for them to be eliminated.

She frowned when she felt a blood-thirsty presence coming her way.

Naruto rolled to her side, blue eyes narrowed as a fawn-haired girl appeared in front of her, bringing a ball towards her target. She breathed in and out, trying not to recoil in disgust at the waves of bloodthirst rolling out of the girl that she met earlier from Shiketsu High.

The girl looked at her and simply stared, large lips parted at what Naruto had just done. The ball in her hand was completely forgotten for just a second as the two teens took the time to stare at each other, seizing the other person up.

It was the Shiketsu girl that broke the spell between them. "How did you know when to dodge?"

Naruto kept quiet, blue eyes focused on the smile playing on the girl's lips. _There is something familiar about this bloodlust._ The memory of that blond-haired girl from the Training Camp popped into her mind for some strange reason.

She darted her eyes at her clones, blue eyes giving them the silent message to start preparing for the seal. If time wasn't of the essence then Naruto would take her time to play and fight this young woman. The importance of passing this exam succeeded her desire to toy with the girl during this fight.

Being overconfident over her skills would do her no good here.

"Tell me Uzumaki, how did you know about my presence?" The girl repeated, brown eyes gleaming with so much interest and eagerness over her actions. Her clones gestured for her to answer the question, to draw her attention towards her while they prepared the seals.

Naruto honestly wondered if she was the boss or if it was her clones.

"Your bloodthirst is so obvious that anyone can sense it," Naruto lied. There was no way she could tell her that she could sense any negative emotions directed to her or anyone else. While she may no longer be a shinobi, Naruto did know the importance of keeping her powers a secret from her enemies.

Right now, this girl was her enemy.

Brown eyes gleamed with excitement and eagerness as the girl slid towards her. "You are full of surprises aren't you?"

Naruto took a step backwards, an awkward smile playing on her lips as the girl beamed at her. One minute the girl seemed like she wanted to kill her and in the next minute, it seemed like she wanted to get physical with her. She stole a glance towards her hidden clones. One of the clones paused in their writing, looked up and gestured for her to continue with the conversation.

 _I need to figure out how to keep her in the area of interest and for me not to get caught by the seal._ She darted her eyes to her clone, smiled as an idea popped into her mind. If she continued talking for a very long time then the girl would never noticed if she created a switch, would she? This would probably be her best course of action instead of recklessly attacking her.

"I have been told by a lot of people that I am an unpredictable girl," Naruto agreed. She flickered her eyes to the surrounding area, blue eyes squinted when she realized that there was no one near them. Her lips curled into a frown. "And I presume that you are one as well…you didn't come here with any of your partners. Mind telling me why you are taking such a big risk?"

"We agreed to divide and conquer in this part of the exam," the girl answered, tilting her head to the side. "I thought that there is a decent chance that U.A might end up flunking out of the test so early in the exam, which is why I came to you. After all you are probably one of the most powerful student in U.A! To know that you were here…well I wanna know more about you!"

The words made sense but Naruto had a nagging feeling that there was more to those words. She didn't know why, but something about this girl rubbed her the wrong way. Maybe it was the blood lust or maybe it was the damn fact those eyes kept staring at her with the same kind of hatred that those villagers used to give her.

"I want to know why did you decide to become a hero? Why did you help someone murder a villain? I thought us _heroes_ don't _encourage_ _death_ ," The girl tilted her head to the side, hands curled into a fist and her slender body ready to launch at her. When the clone gave her the thumbs up, Naruto smashed her hand against the ground and drew the final character before activating the binds that would chain this girl down.

Naruto blinked her eyes as her mind finally caught up to what the girl said to her.

 _You can't…Sensei! Run!'_

Bile rose to her throat as the desperate eyes of Shigaraki flashed before her eyes. It had been pushed to the back of her mind but that question was enough for her memory to be triggered. As much as she hated Shigaraki for putting her friends through so much hell, she forgot that he had someone he dearly loved. All For One might have attempted to capture her but he was Shigaraki's Jiraiya.

All For One must have saved him from the same loneliness that Jiraiya saved her from.

She regretted giving that villain so much pain, but Naruto would never regret helping to kill All For One. The man might have attempted to kill Sakura-chan and Kakashi-sensei.

"He might have tried to kill my precious person," Naruto answered, keeping her voice even and calm. She picked up her own ball, focused her eyes on the young woman and aimed her first ball at the target. "For my precious people, I would do anything to protect them even go back to the place that made me suffer."

The girl hummed as Naruto's ball slammed into the first target on her chest. The girl's legs didn't stagger from the impact, which told the whiskered girl that the seal had been properly done despite the lack of paper and blood. It seemed like the use of her chakra would be enough for her.

"You still haven't answered my question on why you decided to become a hero," The girl sang. "Your words and actions tells me that you have no problem committing horrible acts to protect the people that you love."

' _You're not a monster, Naruto.'_

' _Why does the Hokage allow her to walk these streets? It would have been better if she died.'_

' _We don't serve your kind.'_

Naruto picked up her second ball, kept her eyes fixated on the fawn-haired girl and hurled the ball at the target on her waist. The black targets turned red, signalling the fact that Naruto just needed to hit one more weak area and then she would have one competitor eliminated and another competitor to go.

To know this, Naruto decided to answer the girl's question.

"I never had a lot of people that protected me or who seemed to care about me," Naruto explained. "I was treated like shit and people hated me for something that was out of my control. Most people would turn to murder if they were in my shoes and I knew a boy that did."

Her throat tightened when she recalled the terrible childhood that Gaara went through. If Itachi had never send her notes and those daisies to cheer her up then she would have ended up just like him. Iruka-sensei believed in her and took her out for ramen, making her believe that someone actually did care for her. Kakashi used to surprise her by going to her apartment, bringing her the vegetables that he knew she hated to eat.

If she never had them then she would have ended up becoming like the old Gaara and that terrified her.

"Instead someone send me notes, telling me that I am better than what those people made me to be," Naruto said, shaking her head. "If someone can be that kind to me and could save an orphan like me then I want to be that hero for all those misfits and outcasts. I want to protect people and be a hero that everyone knows that they are safe and protected by my presence."

It was probably a stupid dream, one that should be tweaked but Naruto would make it a reality. She would be a hero in order to stop those villains taking advantages of lonely little children like Shigaraki. A hero that would protect all walks of life, because she knew better than anyone what it meant to be an outcast in their own home.

She was going to become the Guardian.

* * *

It had been easy for her to find another opponent from another school to take down after her strange conversation with that girl from Shiketsu High. Despite the fact she made quite a strong showing in both the Sports Festival and the Kamino Ward, there were still some students that thought they had a chance of defeating her.

Honestly, Sakura and Sasuke thought she was bad with her overconfidence. They should have seen those ten dudes that she took out of commission in just one thought. That girl from Shiketsu was at least fun with her attempt of a surprise attack, those kids had been loud from a mile away.

Shaking her head, Naruto opened the door of the waiting area and took a seat on the bench right beside the food. She tilted her head when it dawned on her that she was the only one in the waiting area. Maybe it would have been a better idea for her to have search for her classmates, but the fact that they had a time limit meant that she needed to be quick about things.

" _120 examinees are now eliminated!"_ The loudspeakers announced with hints of amazement and shock. " _120 examinees have been taken out by a single person, who thereby passes the exam!'_

Naruto whistled at this announcement and flickered her eyes to the television screen, where the camera zoomed in on Inasa. The boy grinned, hands clenched into a fist and the girl was again eerily reminded of Lee with his excitement. The words might not be uttered but the girl could clearly see from the way he kept bouncing on his feet.

A few minutes later and the boy came in, black eyes growing wide at the sight of her sitting on the bench. The smile on his face grew larger, almost reminding Naruto of whenever Akamaru caught sight of Kiba after a game of hide and seek. It was almost cute if you asked her but it would never capture the same cuteness that Akamaru could bring.

"Uzumaki-san, your Quirk must be really amazing for you to pass the exams so quickly!" Inasa declared. He blinked and blinked his eyes as Naruto arched her eyebrows at the backhanded compliment that the boy gave her. "Not that I didn't find your Quirk amazing before…"

"But it isn't anything when you compare it to Bakugou or Shouto." Naruto said, smiling widely at him. The boy spluttered at the comment, trying to explain himself to her but the blond-haired girl kept her eyes focused on Inasa's eyes.

It did not escape her notice that Inasa's eyes turned cold at the mention of Shouto. Her boyfriend had also glared at him but Mina claimed it was out of jealously, which made no sense if you asked Naruto. Todoroki knew she only likes him and not someone else right? Maybe there was another story between their relationship.

"Are you close to Endeavour's son?" Inasa asked, a small frown played on his lips.

Naruto pressed her lips into a thin line at the mention of Endeavour, which earned a confused look from Inasa. She sighed. Would it be in her place to tell him that he should never mention Endeavour around Shouto? Maybe it would be better if she told him this in case he said that title to Shouto.

It might have been months since the Sports Festival but the topic was still a taboo around Shouto.

"Don't let Shouto hear you call him by that title," Naruto replied, keeping her eyes fixated on the television screen. A scowl played on her lips as she recalled the terrible things Endeavour did to his son and family. "Just mention the name Endeavour and Shouto will just turn cold as ice."

"Isn't he always like that? He is just like his father especially his eyes," Inasa declared, hardening his eyes at her. Naruto chewed the inner corner of her cheek as her temper rose to new levels at those words. There were many things she would use to describe her boyfriend from his nicest quality of being empathetic to his worst quality of keeping his emotions too much in check.

It would be nice if Shouto just let himself even more loose with his emotions in public.

"Endeavour and Shouto are two different people," Naruto explained slowly. "Shouto only has those cold eyes whenever someone calls him Endeavour's kid or talks about Endeavour. Shouto really hates Endeavour and tries his hardest not to be like him. If you get to know him then you would see that he is nice, warm and very kind. Endeavour is an asshole that hurts his own family…shit! Don't tell Shouto I said that."

Inasa frowned, black eyes growing wide at her words and a realization dawned on his expression. She rubbed the back of her neck, hoping and praying that the boy would listen to her words and not tell her boyfriend that she spilled everything about his childhood.

It was wrong of her to do this but Naruto didn't want a stranger to think that her wonderful boyfriend was just like his abusive father.

"His eyes hasn't changed a lot from his father," Inasa informed her. "His eyes still burns with hatred."

 _But can you blame him? No one can get over an abuse that easily._ She hoped that filling their relationship with happiness and joy would dull down his hatred, would help him forget about his father. She didn't want her boyfriend to be consumed by his anger and hatred to his father. There was no way in hell that she would allow him to allow those two emotions be the one to control him.

"But you saw the change, haven't you? He is changing from being a self-absorbed asshole to being a loving guy," Naruto felt her lips twitched when she realized that she unintentionally insulted her boyfriend. Did it make her a bad girlfriend to admit that he had been slightly self-absorbed in the beginning? She understood him. She knew just how lonely he had been but it was hard for her not to recognise he had been just a little bit self-absorbed.

She still loves him despite those bad traits.

"I don't know why you refuse to see Shouto as his own person but you should really try to get to know him," Naruto declared as the loudspeakers announced the third person to pass the exam. Blue eyes softened as she thought of all the amazing things Shouto had done for her. "Don't judge him because of who his father is or from your first impressions of them. If you do that then you might miss out of making a wonderful friend."

' _I have also got a monster inside of me.'_ Gaara's words echoed in her ear and Naruto wondered how her friend was doing as the newest Kazekage. Would Gaara have become Kazekage if she hadn't asked to be his friend in the hospital? Would he still remain that murderous monster that his villagers made him out to be if she hadn't defeated him? She didn't know and Naruto didn't want to think about it.

Gaara was her friend now and it was all because she realized that it was all his father's fault that he ended up becoming the very monster that the villagers thought him to be.

"You know I have a friend that terrified me because of how scary his eyes were," Naruto admitted. "But after a while I started to get to know him and I realized that there wasn't much difference between us. I'm sure that if you get to know Shouto then maybe you guys might have something in common."

Gaara became her friend and he had been a hundred times worse than Shouto when it came to his hatred. If Shouto just glared at people then her friend had literally murdered hundreds of people because of his hatred. Yet he overcame that and became a Kazekage despite the fact that he hated his father and his position.

Naruto felt her lips twitched when she thought of the similarities between Shouto and Gaara.

Maybe before going back to Konoha, Shouto and her might need to make pitstop at Sunagakure. It would be nice for her boyfriend to bond with Gaara and his siblings over their hatred over their respective fathers. Those four might spend hours talking about how much they hated their fathers.

It would also make her happier to see Gaara make another friend because Naruto could guess that her friend might still be lonely despite his new position.

* * *

There were fifty other people in the waiting area, which almost made it hard for him to spot any of his classmates. Most of the students seemed to be intermingling, lips curled into smiles as they chatted about what was to come. The boy Inasa seemed to be talking to another student, tearing his eyes to look at him and black eyes stared at him with a thoughtfulness that wasn't present earlier.

He relaxed his shoulders when he caught sight of Naruto drawing a couple of characters on a piece of paper. Lips curled into a tiny smile, he made his way to his girlfriend, making sure to keep his toes quiet. The chances that Naruto wouldn't hear him was quite low, the girl had enhanced smell and hearing after all.

"You know if you want to sneak up on me Shouto then you need to try and be even more quieter~" his girlfriend sang, not looking up from the piece of paper. He shrugged, sliding to take the empty seat right beside her. His eyebrows knitted together when he saw that the seal Naruto was currently making was very different from the seals he usually saw her make.

"I thought I could try," Shouto admitted.

Naruto tore her eyes away from the seal and smiled at him, blue eyes twinkling with joy. She slipped the pieces of paper into her pocket and turned her whole body at him, her knees barely brushing his. "And I love you for trying but you don't try to sneak up on a ninja…that is just plain stupid. Now mind explaining to me why you took so long?"

' _Todoroki Shouto, you shouldn't go off on your own! Those bastards know your Quirk! At least have someone come with you!'_

' _I can't use my Quirk with people around, Naruto!'_

He paid the price for his actions when those five student-like ninjas attacked him.

"Five ninjas attacked me," Todoroki explained, slumping his shoulders. "And you were right to tell me not to go off my own."

"Gave you problems, didn't they?" Naruto raised her eyebrows as a knowing smile played on her lips. Todoroki chose not to answer, his mismatch eyes avoided looking at her. If he admitted that she was right then his girlfriend would remind him of this every time and tell him that was why he should always listen to her.

As much as Todoroki loves Naruto, he didn't want her to have an even bigger head.

Shouto sighed and decided to change the subject. "Were you the first or second person to pass? And where are the others? I thought you guys were planning to work together."

Blue eyes glinted with amusement at his question. "First person to pass, of course!"

"And the others?" Shouto frowned and scanned the room for the remaining members of their class. His lips curled into a frown when he saw that Inasa stole a glance at Naruto, black eyes lingering on Naruto's blue eyes. The Shiketsu boy then turned his attention on him, black eyes kept flickering between the two of them.

Todoroki didn't know what possessed him but he placed his left hand on Naruto's leg, earning a shiver from the girl.

"That bastard Shindou separated us by making an Earthquake," Naruto explained, eyebrows raised at his action. "And I got attacked by a member of Shiketsu but well I dealt with the problem rather quickly. She asked me a lot of questions which is weird when I considered the fact that we are having exams."

Shouto frowned when he heard the slight guilty undertones in her voice. Withdrawing his hand away from Naruto's legs, the mismatch boy focused his eyes on hers. There was no obvious emotion in those eyes but Todoroki had came to understand the different moods in his girlfriend's eyes.

"What did she ask you that made you feel so guilty?" He asked quietly.

His girlfriend balled her hands into a fist, darted her eyes at the chatting students and answered softly. "Why did I help Kakashi-sensei murder that Villain in television? The way she asked me that question made me think that maybe I should have tried to stop Kakashi-sensei and allow the bastard to live."

"Do you regret it?" Shouto asked, raising his eyebrow at her.

His girlfriend furiously shook her head. "That is the worst part, isn't it? I don't regret it because I know All For One would have tried to kill Kakahi-sensei and Sakura-chan," she took in a deep breath. "I know that they can take care of themselves but I—"

"Wanted to protect them," Shouto finished. His girlfriend nodded, lips pressed into a thin line and the mismatch boy sighed before wrapping his arms around her, letting the girl to calm herself down. The other students stopped what they were doing, turned their attention on them but Shouto just stared blankly at them.

He dared them to make a comment about it.

"Even though heroes don't encourage the killing of villains, sometimes situations calls for it." Shouto said softly into Naruto's ears. "Heroes are supposed to embodied the best of humanity, but sometimes situations call for it. If you hadn't helped Kakashi-san kill All For One then he might have attempted to not just kill the three of you, but also All Might."

"Sometimes I think I am stuck between being a ninja and being a hero," Naruto admitted. "Heroes aren't supposed to help or kill people but for ninjas, it is in our job description. I once asked Uncle Kenji why didn't he become a hero and you know what he said? It is because he would have no problem killing all those large time villains. He thinks that he would get into huge trouble with the law if he did that."

"Your Uncle makes a better hero than a lot of heroes," Shouto observed. "His behaviour might be brash but he seemed to have done a good job of raising Uzushiokage into becoming a very good hero."

Naruto's cousin might not be in the top ten, but Shouto could see from the way he interacted with Naruto that he did care about the people around him. It wasn't the fake sincerity like his father and it might not have the same charm as All Might, but Uzushiokage was someone that was worthy of being called a hero.

"If you tell Eisuke that then he might just get a big head," Naruto muttered, shaking her head.

"Sounds like someone else I know."

"Oh you know you love my big head."

His girlfriend had no shame in admitting that she was confident.

* * *

'" _I never had a lot of people that protected me or who seemed to care about me.'_

Toga slipped her hands into her pockets and stared out at the stadium. She had already met with her crush and had the added bonus of questioning the girl that caused her friend so much pain. The plan had been to kill or at least hurt the girl, but Uzumaki Naruto had been too fast for her.

She felt her lips curled into a frown when she thought of those words. Her parents had tried to suffocate her and tried to make her become a person that she was not. Don't lust for blood were her parents would tell her. It was disgusting, they told her when they saw their five-year-old daughter sucking the blood out of a cute little bird.

That girl probably wouldn't understand how it felt to have parents that pretended to give a shit about her. Himiko knew her parents were more concern about what their rich friends would say if they knew about her lust. Those rich friends probably wouldn't invite them to anymore nice parties, make some stupid rumour about her and turned their back on them.

She knew her parents wanted her to be normal just like her brothers and sister.

There was an urge for her to kill someone but Himiko held it in. Shigaraki would be disappointed to know if she ended up killing someone that wasn't Uzumaki Naruto. The last thing Himiko wanted to do was hurt her friend with the knowledge that she hadn't even been able to injure her.

' _I was treated like shit and people hated me for something that was out of my control.'_

Himiko laughed. Those bright blue eyes stared at her with so much pain but Himiko doubted the girl. Uzumaki Naruto seemed to have it easy with her Quirk. Those clones she created was nothing like the clones that Twice created. At least that whiskered girl knew whether she was the original or not. It wasn't weak and seemed to suit her, which was more than what Dabi could say.

How could that girl ever claim to be anywhere similar to them?

She paused when she recalled the sadness in those blue eyes. In the rare moments that Himiko had her sanity, she could start to see things clearly and question everything. The loneliness in those eyes almost reminded her of the days when her parents locked her up in that cold room, telling her that she would only be out when she acted like a normal kid.

It felt so lonely to be there.

Those blue eyes held the same kind of loneliness but instead of choosing to hate the world. Uzumaki Naruto chose to protect the world that seemed to have put her in that very situation. It was almost strange when Himiko thought about it. Outcasts always went against society but Uzumaki Naruto was going with it.

She wondered if maybe she should have questioned the girl more. Izuku was cute and interesting but Uzumaki Naruto was a puzzle that Himiko wanted to play with. She wanted to know what made that girl tick.

She wanted to know what her blood taste like.

* * *

 **A/N: Please review and tell me what you think of this chapter and this is the last rewritten chapter.**


	63. Chapter 63

**A/N: I would like to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows.**

* * *

"Don't you think Naruto and Todoroki-san look more closer than usual, Deku?"

Izuku's green eyes then grew wide at the observation made by Ochako. The brown-haired girl had her eyes fixated on their two chattering classmates, a tiny wistful smile playing on her lips. The two said teens sat side by side, legs barely brushing each other as they chatted about what could possibly be the next portion of the exam.

"Naruto and Todoroki-kun have always been close," Izuku pointed out, keeping his voice as normal as it could be. If it wasn't for the fact Naruto and Todoroki-kun made it clear they didn't want their classmates to know about their relationship, then he would tell his friend about the development of their relationship.

Ochako hummed, "Yes but they look even more intimate than from the Training Camp."

Izuku darted his eyes at their smiling classmates, trying to figure out how Ochako could pick up such subtle changes. The smile on Naruto's face was as radiant as ever and it was always clear to everyone that Todoroki was always more willing to show more emotions around their whiskered classmate.

Nothing to suggest that the two had entered into a relationship.

"I don't understand why Todoroki refuses to tell Naruto about his feelings," Sero interjected, drawing the two teens attention to him. The tall teen stood between them, a small frown played on his lips. "Anyone with eyes can tell that Naruto really likes him."

"Wait! Todoroki actually said he likes Naruto?" Ochako asked, interest leaked out into her tone at this new piece of information. "I thought he was still blind to the fact that he likes her."

 _If it wasn't for Naruto's teammate and teacher then he might have never noticed his feelings._ Izuku stole a glance at their smiling classmates and smiled at the sight in front of them. It warmed his heart to see his two closest friends being happy together—those two really did deserve as much happiness as they can get.

Sero nodded, "Said it the other day too when Ojiro asked him about his feelings to Naruto. I swear that the bathroom got hot when he admitted his feelings towards her."

"Maybe he wants to focus on the exam?" Ochako suggested, tilting her head to the side. Izuku pulled his lips into a frown when he saw the scheming look on his friend's face. He really had a bad feeling about where this conversation might lead. "Maybe he plans to confess to her as soon as the exams are over."

"Maybe," Izuku said lightly. He stole a glance at Naruto and Todoroki, curling his lips into a larger smile smile when he saw the subtle tenderness in Todoroki's eyes and the care in Naruto's eyes. Warmth spread throughout his body like it always did whenever he caught the two of them having their moment.

Sero didn't look convinced.

' _Two more have passed, seven spots remain!'_ The loudspeakers announced, silencing the chatter in the waiting area. All of the students turned their attention to the television screen, their eyes filled with interest on who would be the remaining eight students to join them.

" _Six left!'_ "

Ochako cheered when the television screen zoomed in on Mina, whose black targets now glowed blue.

" _Five left."_

The television screen shifted to Tokoyami, both Izuku and Sero let out sighs of relief.

" _Four!'_ Mera announced, his voice grew more and more excited. " _They just keep coming! In the final minutes, UA came together and pulled off some great combos to pass! Three left! No, now there are two spots remaining!"_

Izuku swirled his head around, green eyes scanning for their remaining classmates in the classroom. Momo, Tsuyu, Shoji and Jirou stood in front of the screen with the girls bouncing with excitement. Bakugou had a smirk on his lips while Kaminari and Kirishima cheered loudly at the achievement made by their classmates.

From what Izuku could guess based on the footage, the only two classmates remaining were Iida and Aoyama. If those two passed then everyone from their school passed the first portion of the exam.

" _And zero!"_ The loudspeakers declared as the bell ranged to signal the end of the exams. The television screen zoomed onto Iida and Aoyama, showing that their black targets had turned blue. " _One hundred people just passed! It's over! Woohoo!"_

Cheers erupted from the waiting area.

"All right!" Kirishima and Kaminari yelled, pumping their fist up in the air.

"Everyone in UA passed the first test!" Ochako bounced and clapped her hands together with joy leaking out of her brown eyes.

"Wow, this is amazing!"

Izuku let out a sigh and relaxed his tensed shoulders at the announcement. He hadn't realized just how tensed he became when the man began the count down to the number of spots that remained. The excitement and nerves really did get the better of him.

Sero nudged Izuku, snapping the boy back to a reality. The black-haired boy pointed at Naruto and Shouto, black eyes twinkling with amusement and mischief as their two friends embraced each other. Or rather Naruto seemed to be hugging Shouto tightly, her legs wrapped around his waist and a smile playing on her lips at the announcement that all of their classmates passed.

"You think she can't make it any more obvious to him?" Sero questioned, shaking his head. Izuku chewed on his bottom lip as Todoroki gently placed the girl down on the ground. The bicoloured boy lowered himself down slightly, a tiny smile playing on his lips as he whispered some words to Naruto. "I doubt she would even do that to Bakugou and their relationship is just as strange."

The blond-haired girl flushed a bright shade of red, an embarrassed smile playing on her lips as she rubbed the back of her neck.

"I think only Todoroki-san can be blind to Naru-chan's feelings," Ochako admitted, a cheerful smile playing on her lips. She tilted her head, brown eyes shining with curiosity. "But I wonder what he said to make Naruto blush so red."

The two boys could only shrugged their shoulders, tearing their eyes away from their two classmates. Ochako shook her head, lips curled into a pout at the fact that neither the two boys had any clue of what Todoroki whispered to Naruto's ear.

" _And now, unfortunately, those who failed will have to withdraw."_ The loudspeakers declared, its booming voice echoed throughout the and silencing the cheers in the waiting area. " _Everyone, please leave promptly."_

With those words, the first portion of the exam was officially declared as over.

* * *

Naruto darted her eyes at the crowded waiting area, her eyes shining with curiosity. Twenty minutes passed since Mera announced the end of the First Phase of the Exam, not giving them any hints or clues of when the second phase would begin. A quick glance at Shouto told her that her boyfriend was beginning to get impatient. His legs tapped against the floor, his eyes kept darting at the clock while their classmates chatted around them.

" _All 100 of you who passed the first test,"_ Chatter died down as Mera's voice boomed through the loudspeaker. Everyone stiffened their back, eyes flaring with excitement. " _Please watch the television screen."_

The television screen came to life, revealing the field. The temporary quietness of the room was broken, replaced with the voices of the confused students. Most of the members of Class A glanced at each other, eyebrows furrowed together as they tried to figure out what the man planned for them.

 _Boom._

The tall skyscrapers and buildings of the city part of the field crumbled, blocks of concrete crashing down to the ground. The water tanks from the factory area exploded, water rushing out of the holes caused by the explosion. The mountains from the mountain terrain cracked with parts of rock slamming harshly on the floors. Minutes passed as more parts of the field self-destructed.

Horror and fear leaked out of the students. Some of the students whimpered and hid their eyes with their hands while others allowed their fear to be clearly seen by everyone. Only Naruto frowned, eyebrows knitted together as she tried to figure out the purpose of this exam.

" _The next test is the last one,"_ Mera informed them as more buildings cried from the explosions. " _We will have you all perform a rescue exercise as bystanders in this disaster site."_

Blue eyes grew large at this announcement as whispers broke out. Rescue. They had done this exercise a lot with All Might and it was the type of exercise that Eisuke made her do during her internship. While most of her classmates hadn't been allowed into the field by their respective heroes, her cousin made sure she helped him with the rescues of all the kidnapped victims.

' _Being a hero doesn't just mean fighting bad guys if you ask me, Guardian! It also means rescuing and reassuring people that everything is going to be alright.'_

Eisuke had drilled it in her head both in her internship and during her short-lived stay with Kenji.

" _Let's assume that those of you who passed the first test have acquired their provisional license,"_ the loudspeakers snapped Naruto out of her train thought and reminded her that she needed to focus on the second part of the exam. " _Now we will test how well you will perform rescue procedures."_

From beside Naruto, Izuku began to sweat while her classmates chewed on their lips, looking almost put off by the man's words.

"There are people there," Shoji observed, his tentacles pointing to the faint figures standing up from the rubble of destruction. The whispers grew louder. Satou sweated, his eyes growing even more rounder if that was even possible if you asked Naruto.

"Elderly, and children too?" Satou moaned.

Mineta tugged his head and cried. "It's dangerous! What are they doing?"

None of his classmates could form a response, all of them froze at the sight before them. It was one thing for them to do the rescue exercise at school, where it was only a simulation, but it was a whole different story for it to be played with them in real life.

Even when invasion broke out between Suna and Konoha, Naruto never had the chance to do the rescue and evacuation of the civilians and children. The focus at the time had been to help Sasuke with Gaara. Not once in that short period of invasion did she actually took the time to observe the expression of the civilians or the wounded soldiers.

" _They are people who have undergone training,"_ The screen zoomed into the civilians and several students paled when they saw the fake blood dripping out of the civilian's heads. " _They are professional_ _ **people in need of rescue**_ _._ "

Naruto frowned as her classmates commented about the jobs. In all her time as working as a waitress, she heard of a lot of strange jobs but this was probably the first time a job like this was mentioned. She heard of the professional pusher, rental boyfriend and professional sleeper, but this was the first time she heard of someone that are professionals as acting like people that needed to be rescued.

It must pay a lot of money when she thought of the potential hero schools that used this company.

" _T_ _hese people are disguised as injured victims,"_ the loudspeakers informed them, silencing the chatter that had erupted from their earlier announcement, " _And are on standby throughout the disaster site. We will have each of you carry out their rescue from now."_

 _So if we are going to rescue them then what are we being evaluated on?_ Naruto chewed on her bottom lip as memories of their own lessons flashed before her eyes. When it came to this portion of their studies, All Might and Aizawa never really scored them with it. They gave everyone advice on how to improve themselves, made comments on what a proper hero should and should not do, but their evaluation varied between each other.

All Might focused on the charm while Aizawa always seemed to focus on their actions.

" _Moreover, we will evaluate your rescue with a scoring system,"_ Mera declared. Naruto's face began to sweat at this announcement as her own memories of the first portion of the Chunin Exam flashed before her eyes. It had been pure luck that she passed the first exam—she didn't want to pass this portion of the exam because of luck. " _And we will count it as a pass if your final score exceeds our benchmark."_

She took in a deep breath and calm down her racing heart. _This is not some difficult paper exam and Eisuke drilled into my head about what to do in these situation,_ Naruto reminded herself as she tried to stop her trembling hands. For some strange reason, she felt just as anxious as she had been in the written portion of the Chunin Exams.

" _We will start in ten minutes, so please use the restroom and such now."_

Naruto took a deep breath at those words and darted her eyes to the clock. There was only ten minutes for her to get herself together and remind herself that she had this in the bag.

She was Naruto Uzumaki and nothing scared her.

* * *

"Todoroki!"

Todoroki blinked and tilted his head as Mineta and Kaminari charged towards him, their eyes filled with so much rage and their hands grabbed his suit. He knitted his eyebrows together, darting his eyes at Midoriya for him to offer a form of an explanation of why their two most perverted classmates seemed to want to kill him.

Midoriya frowned and shrugged his shoulders.

"What the hell were you doing while we were risking our lives!" MIneta cried, punching his legs. Todoroki held out his hands, eyebrows knitted together as he tried to figure out what his insane classmate was complaining about.

"You should have been more focused on your classmates!" Kaminari cried.

Todoroki furrowed his eyebrows, "What are you two talking about?"

"Don't play dumb with us, Todoroki!" Mineta yelled, jerking his finger at Naruto. The whiskered girl was currently chatting with Momo and Jirou near the snack tables. "We know of what you and Naruto did while we were being ruthlessly attacked by the other students!"

 _The only thing we did was hugged and that was because Naruto couldn't hold back her excitement at the fact that everyone passed._ Something told him that if he uttered those words out loud to the two boys then they would took it down as an excuse. He sighed, knowing the only option was for him to keep quiet or to face the complaints of the two open perverts.

He forced himself to keep a blank expression when Naruto turned her attention at them, a bright and warm smile playing on her lips.

"She is giving you a smile that only happens when a girl wraps her legs around a boy," Mineta cried and Shouto's eyes blew wide opened at those words. Pale cheeks grew a furious shade of red, which only served to fuel the rage in those two boys. "That is a smile a woman only gives after she is getting serious with a guy that she is dating."

 _Are we that obvious?_

 _Should I deny it?_

He could only keep quiet as the two teens kept yelling their disappointment at him. Was hiding his relationship with Naruto worth dealing with this crap? A quick glance at Naruto's twinkling blue eyes made him decide that he didn't mind it as long as those blue eyes didn't fade.

"How did you find out?" Todoroki finally asked, darting his eyes from Midoriya to Bakugou. Out of his two classmates, he never expected either of them to be willing to disclose the status of his relationship with Naruto. Midoriya knew better than to this and despite Bakugou's words, the boy did try to help them keep their relationship a secret from their gossiping classmates.

"Sero told us!" Kaminari cried. "You had those toned legs wrapped around your waist!"

His face flushed a deeper shade of red at the reminder. It had taken him completely by surprise when Naruto did this to him, but Todoroki would be lying if he said that he didn't like it. It embarrassed him (he still wasn't use to the touches that Naruto gave so freely and openly) but he liked Naruto's touches.

"I was the closest person near her," Todoroki finally said once his embarrassment faded away. Kaminari and Mineta snorted, heads turned upwards and raised their eyebrows at him. "She was just so happy to know that everyone passed."

"Did it feel good?" Kaminari demanded, shooting a glance at the smiling blond.

Todoroki felt his body temperature rise up as his brain replayed what happened between the two of them. Was there a right answer to this question? Saying yes would only cause those two boys distress as they would believe he actually took advantage of the close contact between Naruto and him. Saying no would only be lying to them and they would think he was an emotionless robot, which might run back to Naruto.

Keeping quiet would be the same as saying yes.

Either way, Todoroki realized that there was no right way he could answer them. Out of the three options laid upon him, he chose the option of keeping quiet and deal with the complaints of his classmates. He stole a glance at Naruto, who raised her eyebrows at the antics of their two classmates. He made a subtle motion of the hug from earlier, causing the blonde to flush a deep shade of red.

"Naru-chan, do you feel hot?" Momo asked and Todoroki felt his lips twitched upwards when Naruto spluttered at the comment.

The smile faded when the three students from Shiketsu High made their way towards them. The leader had his eyes fixated on Bakugou while the boy Inasa seemed to have all his attention on him. Black eyes shone with tension but there was a sense of curiosity and doubt in those black eyes as if Inasa did not know what to make of him. It almost made Shouto wondered if he did something to the boy.

He frowned when he felt his arm brushing against something plush. Twisting his head around, Todoroki blinked at the sight of Naruto standing right beside of him. Her blue eyes kept flickering between him and Inasa, worry shining through them and he wondered what she was concern about.

"Bakugou! Uzumaki! " The leader of the Shiketsu class called out. Bakugou narrowed his eyes, shoulders almost tensed at the announcement of his name, while Naruto frowned. "Shishikura, the guy with the narrow eyes. Did he come after either of you?"

"Nope."

The leader nodded and darted his eyes to Bakugou.

Bakugou nodded. "Yeah. I knocked him out."

The leader moved his furred-covered arm to his chin or what Todoroki presumed to be his chin. The barely visible eyes darted at Naruto, curiosity shining through those eyes and nothing else. His girlfriend stared right back at him, eyebrows knitted in confusion at the sudden interest of who attacked her.

"I thought Shishikura would have attacked you because you are related to Uzushiokage," the leader explained. "It was a curiosity for everyone in our high school to know that a relative of one of the Top Heroes didn't come and join Shiketsu High. I presumed he would have tried to force you to come to our high school."

Todoroki tensed at those words.

"I didn't even know I was related to Eisuke until the Sports Festival," Naruto informed them with a small frown playing on her lips. The other members of Shiketsu High stared wide-eyed at her words. "I didn't know my mother's family so you can imagine my surprise when I found out that my second-cousin was the Uzushiokage. Beside, why should I let my relationship with Eisuke dictate where I go to school?"

The leader nodded and turned his attention to Bakugou. "Since he attacked you then I presumed my classmate acted in a rude way and offended you. He probably went on a rampage, considering how famous you are. I want to build a strong relationship with UA and I wish to apologize for my classmate's actions."

"Don't worry about Bakugou- _chan_ —"

Bakugou growled. "How many times have I told you not to call me that?"

"So many times but we both know that you love my nickname for you, Big Brother." Bakugou's face grew even redder and sparks lit up in his hand as Kirishima covered his mouth with his hand to hide his laugher. Naruto flashed a smile at the leader. "Anyways, the smallest thing can set Bakugou off! I know the bastard for three years and he gets pissed when I call him Bakugou-chan!"

"I'm older than you!" Bakugou snarled.

Naruto poked her tongue out. "And I'm the nicer and more mature one between the two of us, Explosive Head."

"I can be fucking…"

The leader blinked, looking uncertain on how to handle the two arguing teens. Kirishima smiled nervously and attempted to explain that despite the arguments between Naruto and Bakugou that the two actually got along very well. If you asked Todoroki, there was no need for them to try and explain the relationship between Bakugou and Naruto.

There was just simply no explanation about the strange ways that those two could communicate their care for each other.

* * *

"You haven't explained to me why you wanted to reopen this case, All Might."

All Might could only pressed his lips into a thin line as Naomasa handed him the old file of the missing child: Akimoto Minato. If that little boy was still alive then he would be around 40 years old by now but if his suspicions were correct, then Minato had died at the young age of 24, protecting his newborn daughter and Konoha.

Naomasa frowned, "Why are you looking at this file? The trail went cold when neither you nor the other heroes could track down Minato's biological father."

 _Because Minato's mother refused to tell us why she was so terrified that Minato's biological father would take him, when she admitted that the man was a good man._ It puzzled both the police force and the heroes why the woman thought her ex-boyfriend would take their child away from her. Nothing added up with the story but when he considered the fact that Naruto looked like Minato, was born in Konoha and was a kunoichi…well things began to add up.

"Akimoto Narumi told us that Minato's father wanted him and gave us a description of his appearance, but she never told us where Minato's biological father came from," Toshinori explained. He scanned through the files, picking up the subtle details that none of them picked up on. Avoidance of possible reason to take her child away and her fear as well as where the man lived.

They searched the whole of Japan and came up with nothing.

"You think she did it on purpose?" Naomasa questioned. "Why call such a big case? Why blamed everyone?"

 _She didn't do it on purpose but the woman didn't want to admit that she didn't know anything of the father of her first-born child._ If the woman was anything like her grandson then it was her pride which prevented them from finding that young boy. There was always the possibility that Minato went willingly, because if he had been such a smart boy like both his mother and half-sister claimed then he would have left a trail for them.

"You haven't met Akimoto Narumi when she was alive but that woman was prideful and terrifying," All Might shuddered as he recalled the creative threats that the woman gave him when she found out that they came back with nothing. "Her eldest child was a result of a short-lived relationship with a man called Namikaze Souta. What she didn't want to admit was that she didn't know where Souta came from."

"You think he was a foreigner? His name sounds completely Japanese," Naomasa pointed out, jerking his fingers at the smiling photograph of the six-year-old Minato. "And if he was a foreigner then wouldn't border control picked up on him? Akimoto Narumi provided pictures of her young son and pleaded in national television for the safe return of her son."

 _But there is no border control between Japan and the Elemental Countries._ Toshinori thought of the refugees that flooded in from those countries. The secret agreement between the two countries at the time made it impossible for them to even think that young Minato's father came from that part of the world. His mother claimed that Minato's biological father was a simple businessman.

It would make sense if that simple businessman was a front for a ninja trying to get more information about their world.

"The man was good in covering his tracks," Toshinori replied.

Naomasa nodded and frowned, "But that doesn't explain why you want to reopen the case. If that boy was alive then wouldn't he have come back in the years that passed? From what I read in the file, he was very close to his mother and half-sister."

"He is dead," Naomasa frowned and Toshinori pulled out the smiling photo of Naruto that was taken for her student ID. "But there is a possibility that he lived long enough to have this child and I promised myself that I would give his sister and stepfather the closure that they needed. If Uzumaki Naruto's father is the same missing boy then we would have a new lead and a new explanation of how the kidnapping came to be."

If Minato learnt that there was a possibility for him to use Chakra and find a place where he wasn't discriminated for being Quirkless, then it would make sense for him to stay in Konoha.

While Naruto was discriminated for being a Jinchuuriki in Konoha, her father was discriminated for not having a Quirk like the rest of the world.

Toshinori knew all too well how much pain that boy must have gone through, because Toshinori had been Quirkless before he received One For All.

He just hoped that his hunch was correct.

* * *

 **A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter. What do you think of the interactions between the characters and if there is anything that can be improved on.**


	64. Chapter 64

**A/N: I would like to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows.**

* * *

" _You should save as many lives as you can."_

Naruto took a deep breath and weaved her hands to make as many clones as she could make. She might not have been born in this world or know a lot about heroes, but Naruto knew the first meaning of being a hero was to save the lives of the people around them.

Unlike their First Phase of the Exam, there was no need for her to compete with the other schools. With her clones, she could send them to help the other students and rescue the injured victims. Would that increase her chances for the point system? She didn't know but she prayed to god that her clones wouldn't mess things up for her.

"Let's head to the nearest urban area!" Iida barked to everyone as they sprinted over the fallen concrete slabs from the buildings. "We should try to work as a team!"

" _Yes sir!"_

Naruto flickered her eyes to her fading clones, noticing the determined looks displayed across their faces. As the original, she would stay close to everyone or rather she needed to keep close to Bakugou. Out of everyone in their class, only he would be the most likely to fail at this area of the exam. As a fighter, Bakugou was good but she would never want to be rescued by him.

"Now why the hell are you following me, you damn trash!" Bakugou snarled, twisting his head to look at Kirishima, Kaminari and Naruto.

"Simply on a whim!" Kirishima and Kaminari chorused.

Naruto raised her eyebrow. "Because you have a personality of an ass and I know if I leave things be then you might actually fail this exam. So I need to act as damage control to the injured and translate your harsh language to the language of normal people."

"I am fucking nice," Bakugou snarled.

 _Oh I know but I'm going to make you show that nice side, the only way I know how._ It was almost scary how similar they could be to each other. When Naruto first met Bakugou all those years ago, she presumed he was like Sasuke. Her best friend and friend both had a superiority complex larger than her love for ramen, which was saying something. Both of them were focused on their goals but that was where their similarities ended.

Bakugou was as aggressive and his desire to prove himself reminded her of her old self. The way they reacted to the world and the similarities of his dream and to her first dream made her realized that they had more things in common. Also Bakugou acted like a tough guy, but Naruto now saw the softness through those insults.

"Really? I bet that you can't act like a Prince Charming to all those victims!"

Kaminari and Kirishima stopped running, swirled their heads and looked at her like she was insane for saying those words to Bakugou. Pink lips curled into a large smile when Bakugou's shoulders twitched at her comment, red eyes flaring with determination to prove her that she was wrong.

Was it wrong for her to try and manipulate him?

Yes.

Was she doing this because she wanted her friend to pass the exams with flying colours?

Hell yes.

"Why the hell did you say that?" Kaminari cried as Kirishima's red eyes widened in realization at what Naruto planned to do. "Bakugou can't act like Prince Charming even if his life was at stake!"

Bakugou's shoulders twitched and Naruto knew that they needed add a little bit more fire to the flames of competition in her friend. A year ago she would have allowed her friend to do as he wanted, not caring one bit if he would pass or not. But somewhere along the way, Bakugou became one of her friends. Not just any friends but if she had another brother then Bakugou would be her brother.

So like any loving sister, Naruto planned to help him pass these exams with the skim of his teeth.

Kirishima grinned, his eyes twinkled with mischief, and added, "A guy like Bakugou can't ever play such a role. He plays a better role as Villain than as some sweet Prince."

Her friend exploded at that comment. "I can definitely act like some shitty Prince to those actors and I will fucking prove it to you shitty people!"

 _When we pass this exam, I will tell him the actual reason for all those comments._ She grinned and waved at the three teens before sprinting away from them, ignoring the yells of Bakugou about how she was going to regret saying those words to him. When this was all over, sweet little Explosive Head was going to thank her for making him act like his complete opposite.

She stopped running when she heard the cries of a woman. Channelling her chakra into her ears, Naruto focused on where the sound was coming form. It was nearby, maybe three hundred meters from her current position.

Taking a deep breath, Naruto dashed to the cries and stopped when she saw a sobbing woman on top of the debris. Blood dripped down from her forehead and the way she lay on the ground told Naruto that it would be impossible for her to move on her own.

"My husband! He is under those rubble!" The woman sobbed, pointing to the rubble surrounding them. Naruto forced herself to smile as she weaved her hands together to create more clones. Clouds of smoke evolved around them, slowly disappearing as six clones appeared right in front of her.

The clones immediately set off to handle the rubble, straining their ears and eyes for any signs of the woman's husband.

"My clones will definitely find your husband," Naruto reassured the woman quietly. A thoughtful look appeared on the woman's face as her clones dug through the rubble, making sure to gently set it aside and putting the reinforcement seals on the slabs of concrete that surrounded the husband. The original Naruto pressed her fingers against the woman's legs. "Does it hurt you a lot when I do it like this?"

"Yes," the woman sobbed.

Naruto chewed on her bottom lip and checked on the blood dripping out of the woman's head. While she might be no medical ninja or doctor, she had been in a hospital a lot as a child due to the constant desire to prank those annoying doctors. The cut on the woman's forehead seemed to be shallow but the level of fake blood told her that she needed to hurry up.

She inhaled and scooped the woman up to her chest, flashing a large smile at the woman. "I know things might look terrible but everything is good now. Do you want to know why? Because my clones will do everything in their power to get your husband out of there. We will definitely rescue him but right now, let me get you to first-aid."

Her clones were still focused on digging through the rubble as Naruto channelled her chakra into her legs, increasing her normal speed ten folds.

Even if this was a simulation, she needed to be as quick as possible when it came to getting this woman back to safety. With every sprint, Naruto would flash a warm smile at the woman and try to take her mind off the terrible event that occurred. She didn't know whether this was the right thing to do but she never liked to see people look this sad.

Sadness and cold eyes reminded her of those terrible lonely days in Konoha. Sadness in a situation like this reminded her of Konohamaru and his anger when he found out about Tsuande replacing his grandfather as Hokage.

She had been terrible when it came to cheering him up, only focusing on the fact that she wanted Tsunade to heal Sasuke and Kakashi. Not once did she stop to think about the fact Konohamaru was still reeling over the loss of his grandfather, the man that helped raised him after the death of his parents.

The sound of explosions going off had Naruto snapping her out of her train of thought. She swirled her head, blue eyes narrowing as she tried to find the source of such a powerful blast. There was no way this was the work of Bakugou, not when her friend would be trying his hardest to prove everyone wrong about not being able to act like a Prince.

Blue eyes grew large when she saw that the flank of the stadium was destroyed, crumbled into tiny pieces as a huge number of 'villains' invaded the evacuation site. Those villains were armed and were now charging towards them with so much determination.

These people really wanted to test her patience.

* * *

Gang Orca surveyed the scene of the evacuation site as he charged towards them. Most of the students were unfamiliar faces to him but there was one student that stood out to him from the very beginning. The girl was only fifteen but managed to help defeat the greatest Villain of all time by making a couple of characters on the ground.

Her Quirk was even more dangerous when he considered all the potential things that she could do. Unlike most people's Quirks, the girl was able to mimic almost everyone's Quirks and without any backlash. With better control of that Quirk, the girl might just become dangerous.

"Get everyone to safety! To the back! Get everyone as far away as possible from the villains!" Shindou barked, sliding forward and slamming his hands on the ground. "I will keep hitting them with tremors at one second intervals!"

The ground trembled and crumbled at those words. His subordinates cried as they staggered down to the ground. _Arrogant child._ Gang Orca took a deep breath and charged right towards the boy, ready to send a sonic wave towards him.

Black eyes widened at the sight of him and Gang Orca leaned his head forward and released his sound waves at the boy.

"Your opponent is me!"

Gang Orca blinked as Uzumaki drilled her fist against his face, sending him flying to the other side of the building. He winced and nearly whimpered as the stadium's wall crumbled, crashing down on his fin. For a brief moment, he was in a daze as his mind tried to figure out how the girl could have increased her speed to levels faster than his eyes could catch up to her.

It had been stated in the meeting that Uzumaki Naruto was a powerhouse that shouldn't be underestimated, but Orca never expected for the girl to have so much raw strength that she could send someone his size flying through the air.

 _This is the girl that the government has so much high hopes for._ She might not have the same charm as All Might and her strength might even exceed him, but Orca could see now of why the government had quiet down the media after the Kamino Ward incident.

A child with this much potential could be able to fill in the gaps caused by All Might's retirement.

With that thought in his head, Orca charged right back at the girl. He ducked and dodged as the girl's clones swung their fists and legs at him. A hundred clones surrounded the area, making him wonder which one of them was the original copy.

He smirked when he saw one of the hundred Naruto staring wide-eyed at him. Closing his eye, Orca directed his sound waves to the girl. The girl just stood there, frozen in shock and just when the sound wave was about to hit the girl—a block of ice appeared, bouncing the sound waves back towards him.

Swirling his head around, Orca saw Endeavour's son glaring at him. A quick glance at the clones told Orca that the girls were both amused and annoyed at the boy's actions.

"Todoroki-kun!" Izuku cried, eyes growing large at the sight in front of them. Mismatch eyes did not acknowledge his classmate, all of his attention was directed at Orca.

More and more students sprinted towards him, determination flashing through their eyes and Orca watched as the students began to help with the evacuation. There was no hesitance, no fear and he wondered if the presence of Uzumaki Naruto was the cause of these emotions.

Ice flooded the area, clasping and locking all of his minions in place. Orca returned his attention on Todoroki, red eyes filled with interest when the boy showed his concern towards the whiskered girl. _Different from his father,_ Orca mused as the two teens whispered to each other.

He wasn't ranked number Ten for no reason. Orca knew from observing those two, what their greatest weakness were.

Turning his head towards them, Orca directed his fin at them and released a series of large sonic blast towards them. Blue eyes grew large and blond eyebrows knitted together. She nipped her finger, blood leaking out of her finger and quickly drew a couple of characters and a circle on the ground.

The ground in front of them raised up, effectively separating and acting as a barrier between the two teens from his gaze.

 _Isn't she filled with surprises?_ Orca snorted and found that he might actually start enjoying the match between him and this young unpredictable girl. He smashed his fist against the wall, cracking it half but only to find two copies of the girl right in front of his eyes.

"Now, Shouto!" Naruto yelled.

Gang Orca swirled his head, eyes growing wide as ice was sent flying his way. He sent another wave of sound waves towards them, cracking and slicing the blocks of ice.

 _Those fools think…_

He blinked when the cracked ice was now being sent flying his way. Orca ducked and dodged as his mind tried to figure out how this happened. The girl hadn't made any hand movements, which was required for her to activate her chakra, nor did he see her make any characters. How was this possible?

"Look up, Fishy!" Naruto cheered, pointing upwards. She gave a thumbs up. "Thanks Inasa!"

Swirling his head upwards, Orca felt his lips twitched at the sight of the boy from Shiketsu floating right above him. His hand was swirling and twirling the ice at him and flushed cheeks told Orca that the boy found some joy from the praise given by the girl.

"It is exciting for me to battle a villain!" Inasa declared, narrowing his eyes at Todoroki. "But I still don't like Todoroki."

Todoroki glared right back.

 _Teenage boys. They always seemed to fight over girls._

That was the only thought running through Orca's head.

"If the two of you even think of making this as some pissing contest then god so help me, I will make your lives hell! We got a villain to fight here!" Naruto barked at the two boys. Orca felt himself shivered when he saw the rage pouring out of the girl.

Uzumaki Naruto was definitely someone that should never be messed with.

* * *

Miss Joke pursed her lips as she watched the three man team from U.A and Shiketsu attacked Gang Orca. Her eyes lingered on the only female of the team formed. "That student of yours seems to be too confident about their capabilities against someone like Orca. Your other students should at least try to help them."

"I can see why you would like this in the beginning," Aizawa focused his eyes on Naruto. He composed his thoughts as the girl barked orders both at her temporary teammates and at her clones. That large smile on Naruto's face from earlier dropped, telling Aizawa how serious that the girl planned on taking Gang Orca. His lips almost twitched in pride when girl created another wall to separate the three teens from Gang Orca.

His student gestured for the two boys to come together, hands waving together and blue eyes filled with curiosity as they discussed about their course of action.

"As much as I enjoy taking a guess of what is going through your head, mind letting me understand why your other students aren't joining in?" Ms. Joke questioned.

Aizawa sighed and stared pointedly at the orange figure charged straight at the 'Villain'. "All of them understand that the attack against Gang Orca needs to be effective and have as much compact while the others focus on evacuating the others. As you probably know from the Sports Festival, Naruto has the abilitiy to make so many clones that she could be a one-man army."

"I think you mean one-woman army," Ms. Joke said, smiling at him. Her smile faded and she focused on the girl that seemed to be running around Orca as the two boys combined their attacks together. "But why isn't she making more clones? She seemed to have sent most of them to…"

The black-haired man pointed to the new debris that had not been there before. "Naruto has a habit of disguising her clones whenever she make seals. I am sure those debris are actually her clones and they are just hiding the marks that they created."

"Marks?" Ms. Joke snapped her fingers. "I remembered from watching the fight against that Villain that your student wrote a couple of large characters and caused the Villain to stay still. Does she plan to do the same thing?"

Knowing his student, Aizawa expected Naruto to do the same thing again.

* * *

Kaminari could only sweat and shudder as he watched Bakugou spoke gently and acted concern for the young child in front of them. A quick glance at Kirishima told Kaminari that his friend also found this behaviour to be off-putting. Yellow eyes grew larger when he saw the way the child flushed red when Bakugou made great efforts to carry the girl.

"Everything is going to be just okay," Bakugou declared, flashing a smile at the girl. There was the occasional twitch in the boy's movement, but other than that there was no indication that behind that smile was a rude asshole.

It terrified Kaminari because what was so cool about Bakugou was the fact that he didn't care about what people think or feel.

"The world must be ending for this to happen," Kaminari finally muttered as the girl tightened her grip around Bakugou. Her eyes pressed against their classmate's chest as she sobbed her made-up story to the blond-haired boy. There was a twitch in Bakugou's eyebrows, but he still didn't break out of character.

"I actually think it is quite funny," Kirishima grinned as he placed the father's hand over his neck. "And we should be grateful that Naruto had the insight of knowing how to make Bakugou act like his complete opposite. We would be dealing with crying people instead of people swooning over him."

"Says that I can't do this shit," Bakugou grumbled as they tried to find the new location of the first aid. Kaminari let out a sigh of relief at those words while the child frowned, not looking one bit pleased about the words uttered by the teen. The blond-haired boy forced himself to make a gentle expression at the girl, effectively silencing the silent complaints of the girl.

"You know I kind of wish that we had a phone during these exams," Kirishima whispered to him as the other students around them continued to bring out more and more of the injured. Red eyes flickered at Bakugou, lips curled into a grin as the boy kept uttering reassuring words to the girl. "He looks almost exactly like a Prince with that behaviour. No one will believe that Bakugou is actively trying to hold his temper back."

"I think they will believe it if we tell them that Naruto gloated him," Kaminari hissed.

Kirishima shrugged his available shoulder and Kaminari sighed. It was not like he wasn't happy about the fact Bakugou managed to keep his temper in check but Kaminari had never seen the boy smiled so softly like that. Every single time Bakugou smiled like that, he thought he was seeing their female classmate staring right back at them.

It was weird because Naruto was hot and nice while Bakugou was just plain nasty.

"See! You should act more like that outstanding young man!"

The three boys stopped and jerked their heads as an elderly old man jerked his wobbly finger at Bakugou. The student scowled and stared at them, while the girl in Bakugou's arms tightened her grip on him. _You are going to give Bakugou an even bigger head._ Kaminari held himself back as his fellow blonde puffed up his chest in pride.

"I never thought I would hear the word outstanding to describe Bakugou," Kirishima muttered as Bakugou scanned the area to find the new first-aid area. Kaminari furiously nodded in agreement, smiling widely when their friend swirled his head to look at them.

The three of them stopped walking when they saw Izuku and the other members of their class running with the injured civilians on their backs. Determined looks decorated their faces as they continued to sprint away from the original evacuation site.

"Where should we be heading?" Kaminari asked. Mina and Hagakure stopped running, swirled their heads and gawked at the sight of Bakugou carrying a girl in his arms. This earned a smile from Kirishima, a scowl from Bakugou and a sigh of relief from Kaminari.

He was not the only one that found this whole behaviour weird.

"Is the world ending for Bakugou to carry someone?" Mina asked, juggling the elderly man in her back.

Bakugou scowled, "What the hell does that mean? Why does everyone keep saying this shit!"

"Because you aren't exactly the nicest guy in the world," Hagakure replied like it was the most obvious thing to the world. Bakugou scowled at the reminder while both Kaminari and Kirishima snickered at their classmate's bad reputation. Red eyes slanted at them, promising to make their lives hell as soon as this exercise was over.

"Naruto made a bet that Bakugou couldn't act like a Prince," Kirishima explained.

The girls nodded and let out a sigh of relief as a loud, long siren blasted through the arena, followed by the announcer's voice. "If I could have your attention, please. At this moment, all the deployed injured civilians have been rescued from the danger zone."

As soon as those words were announced, Bakugou dropped the girl that he had been carrying.

Kaminari relaxed his shoulders as the world returned back to normal.

* * *

"So all the students from Class 1A and Class 1B passed the Provisional License Exam?"

Vlad and Aizawa nodded as Nezu rubbed his chin, his beady eyes locked on the reports that the students had been forced to hand back to him. It filled him with joy to know all of his students had been successful in getting their license, however with All Might retired. He flickered his eyes to Uzumaki Naruto's file, lips pressed when he saw the girl's high score.

"Uzumaki Naruto gained most of her points from fighting the Villains, didn't she?" He picked up the file and skimmed read through the slight mistakes that the girl made. Aizawa nodded, looking uncertain on where this conversation might be leading all of them too.

Out of all the current students in Yuuei, Uzumaki Naruto was their strongest student and that was not a good thing. The incident with All Might meant that it was time for them to step up as their roles as educators and to make sure that those kids would be able to support each other by the time of their graduation. If things continued on the way they were, then they would only rely on the girl.

It would not be fair for such a child.

"We need to figure out a way to fix the gap between our students," Nezu informed the two teachers. Aizawa frowned while Vlad straightened his back, excitement leaking out of his eyes. All of them made sure that their students focused on the normal parts of their school life but Nezu wanted to change things now. Currently, all of the students were naïve of the world around them.

If his hunch was also correct then the recent kidnapping of talented, powerful little children meant that the other side of the world planned to experiment them. Nezu hated anyone that planned to experiment on might need to call on Uzumaki and those kids that searched for her, asking them if they knew of which monster that would dare to kidnap and experiment on little children and asked them if they could bring back those missing children.

Of course, Nezu couldn't tell the teachers this.

"I think for the remaining of this semester, the students should go and see the Elemental Countries to have a better idea of how our two societies are different and to see if there is any techniques that could be used," Aizawa's eyes grew large while Vlad jerked his head at him. Nezu rubbed his chin and focused his eyes on the smiling face of Uzumaki.

Vlad smashed his hand against the table. "Are you serious? That world is dangerous and filled with so much crimes, we swore on television that we wouldn't put the children in danger."

"Do you see the gap between Uzumaki and the other students? Some of the students have lost points because of their teamwork skills," Nezu said calmly. "And some of the students have no clue on how to act when someone is injured or how to protect the others. I believe getting a culture shock would serve them enough motivation to get their heads straight."

"And where would we stay in the last minute?" Aizawa questioned, lips pressed into a thin line. "And the permission slips? The semester has barely started and the parents has barely given us our trust when it comes to their children."

Nezu raised his eyebrow at Aizawa, flickered his eyes at the photo of his smiling student and the man narrowed his eyes at him. Their students might be children but it was probably time for them to realize that they had it lucky. It was time for them to observe and see real danger at its finest, perhaps it was cruel of him to do such things to the students.

But Nezu refused for the quality of their students to drop.

* * *

 **A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter. Constructive critisim is welcomed.**


	65. Chapter 65

**A/N: I would like to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows as well as everyone that reviewed the last chapter.**

* * *

"You called for me, Aizawa-sensei?" Th door to the teacher room slid opened as Naruto stepped into the office, eyebrows scrunched together as she searched for her homeroom teacher in the office.

Aizawa looked up from the files, tired eyes fixated on his nervous blond-haired teen. He sighed and waved his hand at the girl, gesturing for her to take the empty seat right in front of him. With the announcement made by Principal Nezu, there was only one person who would need the announcement broken privately before the other students.

With her eyebrows knitted together, Naruto took a seat on the chair.

"Uzumaki, there is going to be a trip overseas that will take place in a week time," Aizawa began. He darted his eyes to the files, lips pressed into a thin line as he tried to figure out how to break the news gently to her. Despite the improvement in her behaviour, it worried him if just one bad news might spiral her into despair. Hours spent on therapy might just go down the drain because of this trip.

"Aizawa-sensei, what does a trip overseas have to do with me?" Blue eyes flashed with curiosity as Vlad stopped his own paperwork and turned to him, eyes flashed with curiosity. It seemed like the conversation with Nezu had not given him any clue about why the principal compared his female blond-haired student to the others.

"The trip is going to take place in the Elemental Countries."

Blue eyes turned blank at his words and the small smile on her lips was now just a straight line. Aizawa grabbed hold of his student's hand, forcing the girl to look at him. He inhaled, "If you feel upset about this or if you have any questions then tell me or Vlad-sensei now."

"Why? The Elemental Countries is dangerous for Quirk users," Naruto furiously shook her head and stared at them like they were insane. "The Hidden Villages might attempt to steal one of the kids and use them for a breeding program! Wars had nearly started because of it."

Vlad and Aizawa glanced at each other and then to the blue-eyed girl. The two of them were aware of the potential dangers of the countries. Aizawa had done some work with the refugees, explaining to them about the process of integration back to the country. A few of the refugees admitted to being hunted down for their Quirks, having family members killed for just possessing one.

"The principal believes that going to the Elemental Countries will give the other students a better idea of how to improve their techniques and to get a few valuable lessons from the shinobi," Aizawa explained calmly.

His student raised her eyebrow, "And how does he expect that to happen? For students like Shouto or anyone with Elemental Quirk then it would work. There are jutsu to mimic the elements but things like tape? Or even sticky balls? That is going to be harder. Technique like those needs more creativity."

"Principal Nezu wants to bridge the gap between you and the other students, Uzumaki," Vlad explained. He grimaced and stared at the file that ranged the scores of each of the individual students from both the classes. "When we compare all the results in the Hero classes and the Provisional Liscense Exam as well as your stunt in Kamino Ward…"

Naruto rubbed the back of her neck, earning a sigh from Aizawa.

"It makes the media and public believe that you can be the next symbol of peace," Aizawa finished, closing his eyes as he recalled the praise given by the media for his student's actions on television. From watching the girl battle against All For One, the public had fallen in love with this blue-eyed girl.

It was not good when all of them considered the problem All Might had given the society.

"Me? Don't get me wrong Aizawa-sensei, I'm glad that they accept me but I helped murder a villain." He was aware of this detail. It was not something he wanted to bring up with Naruto, not when he put it down as a part of her shinobi mentality and her desire to protect her teammate and teacher. This was the only reason he chose to keep quiet about this detail.

"The public and the government are willing to forget that detail because of the danger that villain could cause," Aizawa explained.

The girl frowned and rubbed the sides of her head, blue eyes turning blank as it always did whenever his student had something on her mind. He wanted to shake the girl out of it, to get her to tell him about what was going through her head, but held himself back. Naruto would eventually tell them of her feelings whether through her words or through her actions.

"If I was to connect the dots from everything that you told me, Principal Nezu believes that I reach this level of strength because of the Elemental Countries, right?" Aizawa nodded and the girl slumped her shoulders at his answer. "Then explain to me how he wants them to get stronger? I have permission to carry out missions in Konoha because I am considered a kunoichi."

"I believe that your status as a Jinchuuriki might hold some sway, wouldn't it?" Vlad questioned.

Naruto shook her head, "The civilian council hates the crap out of me and wanted to see me exile from Konoha because of one lapse of judgement. Granny Tsunade might agree but only after she screams at me for leaving the village the way I did."

"Granny Tsunade?" Aizawa wasn't even sure why he even dare to ask; if he knew his student as well as he did then Naruto was probably insulting someone very important.

She nodded, "The Fifth Hokage. I call her that because she is actually the same age as Ero-Sennin but she looks like she is in her twenties."

Why did he even ask?

"You do realize that you shouldn't insult the leader of any organization or anyone in government, don't you Uzumaki?" Vlad asked, shooting Aizawa a look of pity. The whiskered girl shrugged, not caring one bit about the attitude and served to remind the Class 1A homeroom teacher about the strong similarities between Naruto and Bakugou.

"She might yell at me for the insult but it is kinda our thing," Naruto explained. "I called the Third Hokage: Old Man and he never seemed to mind as well. Anyways I think if you guys really want to go through with this trip then you should talk to either Ero-Sennin or Kakashi-sensei."

The girl blinked and corrected herself. "Maybe Kakashi-sensei because I think Kakashi-sensei might have told her that Ero-Sennin was the one to bring me here."

"Can you tell us of what kind of clothing that the other students should wear? Or things that they should also expect when we all get there?" Vlad asked and Aizawa frowned, lips pressed into a thin line at the question. It escaped his notice to ask about the clothing or the kind of life that the children would be exposed to.

Naruto racked her hand through her hair and her other arm scratching her back. "The technology in the Elemental Countries are bit more dated—their mobile phones would never work and laptops are a no go and there are no cars so they will be running a lot," she sighed. "The clothes aren't too much of a big deal since we do have some clothes that looks the same here, but the latest fashion like sneakers, band shirts and tight jeans are a no go."

This was how they spent the next hour with Vlad and Aizawa questioning the girl about what the students should prepare for themselves, until Vlad came to the conclusion that Naruto should be the one to explain the concept of the Elemental Countries to Class 1A and 1B.

Aizawa was not looking forward to this.

* * *

"Aizawa-sensei upset you." She barely relaxed onto the empty seat beside Todoroki before the mismatch boy declared those words to her. Their other classmates decided that after giving two days of rest, it was a much needed time for them to celebrate with their families. The only people , beside her, who decided to stay behind in those two days was Todoroki and Bakugou.

Originally it was Naruto's plan to go and stay with her mother's family for those two days, but then Momo told her about Aizawa-sensei. When coupled with what he told her about the trip to the Elemental Countries…well that ruined any joyful idea of spending some time with her family.

Shouto twisted his body around, mismatch eyebrows knitted together as Naruto let out a sigh. If this was Momo, Jirou or even Izuku then all she needed to do was keep quiet and smile, pretending everything was okay. But this was Shouto. He knew exactly when she was lying and knew of her habit of bottling everything up.

"Principal Nezu upset me."

Shouto frowned and raised his eyebrow at her. Naruto nibbled on her bottom lip, pushing it back and forth as her mind tried to explain to him about the newest development for the semester.

"Aizawa-sensei is going to announce it in a few days time," Naruto informed as she placed her head on his chest, closed her blue eyes as she inhaled. "But Class 1A and Class 1B are going to take a few months trip to the Elemental Countries as a way to get everyone stronger."

Shouto frowned, racked his hand through Naruto's hair and tilted his head. "You are not happy about the change of plans for the semester, but wasn't your plan to go to the Elemental Countries in the holidays, anyways? Why does it upset you?"

A sigh escaped from Naruto's lips at the reminder. Yes, it was her plan to go in the holidays but now more people were going to see how the villagers treated her. Shouto witnessing her problems or even Bakugou and Izuku were okay but she didn't want anyone to fully comprehend what she went through. Her classmates were going to comprehend how discriminated she was.

There was also the fact she wasn't ready to go back there.

"I'm not ready," Naruto admitted. Another sigh leaked out of her mouth when Shouto's nail scratched her head, relieving the itch that she never knew was there. She took in another deep breath and regained her composure. "I wanted to do it in the next holidays because I thought I would be ready by then. I mean I care about the village and I miss Iruka-sensei, Tsunade and Konohamaru but am I ready to put back that happy go lucky mask? And pretend everything is okay?"

' _ **Why should we pretend? Those people never even attempted to pretend that they gave a shit about us.'**_ That voice whispered again. The darkness and hatred leaking out of that tone frightened Naruto. She burrowed her head against Shouto's chest as she tried to squash down that dark voice.

Where was this voice coming from? And why did it voice every negative thing that run in her head?

"You don't have to pretend everything is okay," Shouto whispered, his hand stopped racking her hair. Naruto frowned at the halt and felt herself falter when she saw the support in his eyes. "No one expects you to be happy about this. All of us will understand if you cry, scream and curse about this trip."

"And what good would it do for me to cry?" Naruto asked, smiling ruthful. "It will just ruin the trip and it will only cause everyone to worry about me. If I cry about the fact we are going there then it just proves to me that I'm still that crybaby who cries about her bad luck. I never cried in Konoha and there is no way I'm going to start now."

Todoroki sighed as he wrapped his hands around her, bringing Naruto close to his chest. Naruto knew what her boyfriend was telling her; it was better to cry now in the privacy of the dorm then to breakdown later in public. She smiled but did not allow the tears to fall. The days she spent crying over Konoha and their actions towards her, towards Sasuke and even to Itachi was now over.

"You can cry so easily for other people's pain but when it comes to your own pain—you decide to ignore it," Todoroki said softly, rubbing circles around her back. "You will scream and yell but you won't let anyone see that you are in pain."

"I cried when everyone showed me that they cared about me in USJ," Naruto reminded, relaxing under the movement of his hands. "And I cried when I told Uncle Kenji about how the village treated me. I think I am doing a perfectly good job of showing my pain to the world. I'm just too tired to cry about the hell I went through."

Naruto looked up at him and felt her throat tightened at the emotions ranging in Todoroki's eyes. Three months ago, the boy showed little to no emotions to the world but now she could clearly see the range of emotions in them. The understanding, the care but most of all the love in his mismatch eyes. These emotions were not there earlier.

"Then why don't we try and make some happy memories?" Naruto blinked and Todoroki rubbed the back of his neck. An action that Naruto knew Shouto made whenever he felt uncomfortable of something. "With everyone there, we can give you some happy memories about Konoha and until we get there—we can do some fun activities."

"Like arcades? I still wanna beat you in that shooting game," Todoroki smiled and the girl beamed at him. "And the movies too? Our classmates dragged the both of us for some karaoke after we all passed the Provisional License Exam! And what about a picnic? Because I know you also don't like crowded areas. There is also…oh god just stop me from talking before I say something embarrassing!"

She blinked when Todoroki kissed her, effectively silencing her. Naruto flushed a bright shade of red and raised her eyebrows at him, only for Shouto to give her an innocent look. This only earned a laugh from the blond-haired girl.

Of course, the best idea that Shouto had of silencing her was to kiss her.

"So you want to watch the movies today?" Todoroki asked, tilting his head. Naruto smiled and nodded but her smile faded when she realized that she needed to make one stop before they went to the cinema. Chewing on her bottom lip, Naruto stared at her curious boyfriend and wondered if she should bring him to see Itachi.

It would never hurt, would it?

Itachi and Shouto would get along; Naruto frowned. She hoped they would get along because it would mean the world to her if they get along.

* * *

"Here is your fact of the day: I dislike fake heroes." Itachi blinked as Tomoko flashed him a smile and handing him the medicine that would ease his symptoms. Sighing, he accepted the medicine from the pretty young woman. In the last couple of days the young doctor had come through a breakthrough when it came to his sickness.

Swallowing his medicine, Itachi raised his eyebrow. "Fake heroes?"

"People that become superheroes for the wrong reasons," Tomoko explained. She slumped into her chair, pale hands rubbed the sides of her head as the nurses came in to give Itachi his lunch. Just like always, the nurses flushed pink and offered him a shy smile before dashing out of his room. The fear Tomoko inspired them was greater than their desire to act anything less than professional.

He could only sigh in relief when the nurses left his room.

"Itachi!" The door slammed opened, going against its frame.

Naruto and a mismatch boy stepped into his hospital room, their eyebrows raised at the sight of the terrified nurses. Itachi tilted his head as his black eyes took in the sight of the young boy beside Naruto. Beside him, Tomoko stiffened and her amber eyes flashed with recognition of the boy. Itachi wondered if the two had met before.

Like always, there was a yellow daisy in Naruto's hands.

"Looks like I don't have to worry about you being lonely when we leave," Naruto declared. She ran her hand through her blond-hair, a smile playing on her lips which earned a raised eyebrow from Itachi and a frown from the mismatch boy. "The nurses and Tomoko-chan seems ready to be by your side."

Tomoko flushed pink while Itachi avoided the knowing eyes of his former ward.

"What do you mean when you leave?" Tomoko asked. She focused her eyes on the mismatch boy, lips pressed into a thin line. "And you? What will your sister say?"

"You know Fuyumi?"

Tomoko nodded, "Your father was always too busy training you when I used to visit your house, but Fuyumi and I became friends on our first day of school. I probably wouldn't have recognised you if it wasn't for the fact that Fuyumi and Touya used to show your baby photos in class."

"Was he cute? I can guess that Shouto was a cute baby since he looks so pretty now," Naruto asked; Shouto flushed pink. Tomoko flickered her eyes between the mismatch boy and then to Naruto, amusement shining through her amber eyes as if understanding the relationship of the boy. He raised his eyebrow at Tomoko but the woman just shrugged her shoulders.

Itachi sighed, "Naruto, who is this?"

Naruto smiled nervously as she interlinked her fingers around Shouto's hands. The action and the way the boy Shouto stared at the blond-haired girl told him about their relationship. No way could Itachi hold this against the young woman not when his brother hurt her too much. His brother was going to be hurt when he finds out but Sasuke should have known what his actions would lead.

"I'm guessing that Endeavour doesn't know about your relationship?" Tomoko asked, her lips pursed and amber eyes flashed with concern. The teens shook their head and the woman nodded. "Wise choice. Endeavour is a nightmare when it comes to his children's relationship. You could have the most amazing Quirk but if he thinks that you are a distraction to his prized child…"

"You dated Touya," Shouto stated.

Tomoko laughed and shook her head. She racked her hands through her gray hair as the teens stared at her with curiosity. Itachi tilted his head, black eyes locked on the young woman. The laugh might be sincere but after two weeks of her constant presence, Itachi learnt when the woman was withholding information back.

"Eisuke mentioned that you dated a Hero's son." Naruto looked at the woman with pleading eyes, asking her if the man Touya was the one that this Eisuke mentioned.

"I never dated Touya even if Eisuke and the rest of the class thought we were," Tomoko explained gently. She sighed and looked out at the window as she tucked a strand of loose hair. "Touya was my friend, maybe we weren't as close as I was to Fuyumi, but I saw what your father did to all the relationships your brother had. He ruined them."

"What are you trying to tell us?" Naruto asked, failing to keep her temper in check.

Tomoko shook her head. "I'm telling you that Endeavour will try to find a way to ruin your relationship if he thinks that you are a distraction to his prized child. Before Shouto, it was Touya that Endeavour placed all his pressure on. I saw the hell those girls went through with Endeavour—I don't want that for you. Kenji-sama and Eisuke won't be happy if they know of what kind of hardass Endeavour is."

"I can deal with whatever bullshit Endeavour throws me," Naruto declared. Itachi could only press his lips into a thin line and darted his eyes to Shouto, wondering if the boy was strong enough against his father. Sasuke had refused to become friends with Naruto earlier because he didn't want to disappoint their father. With the way their father glared at Naruto on the first day of the Academy, his brother had decided against becoming friends with Naruto.

Even though their mother pleaded with him.

Shouto seemed to be different because Itachi could see the determination and desire to protect in those mismatch eyes. It might be barely there but he knew the boy cared a lot about Naruto.

"Look we came here because the hero department in Yuuei are going to the Elemental Countries and I won't be able to visit Itachi for the next couple of months," Naruto explained, shaking her head. Tomoko's eyes grew large and Itachi relaxed his shoulders at this information. "By the time I come back here, I will have Sasuke back and god so help me Itachi—don't die on me."

"Who is Sasuke?" Tomoko asked.

"My brother," Itachi replied.

He hoped that Sasuke would be willing to listen to Naruto.

* * *

 **A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter. What do you think of the interactions between the characters.**


	66. Chapter 66

**A/N: I would like to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows as well as everyone that reviewed the last chapter.**

* * *

"You wanted to talk to me, Aizawa."

Kakashi swirled his cup of coffee, his lone eye fixated on the man right in front of him. There was no smile on the man's face, not that the silver-haired man expected for him to smile. In the month since they met, not once had he ever seen Aizawa give a normal smile. It almost made him wonder if the man ever smile.

"I need your help to convince the principal not to send the children to the Elemental Countries." Kakashi blinked and stopped swirling his drink as Aizawa fixed his black eyes on him. The sincerity and the slight hint of desperation told the silver-haired man that the man was not even joking about their principal plans. What kind of insane person would send a bunch of unprepared kids there?

He would be putting all of those teens in danger, especially Naruto. When his student asked him if there was anyone that would do anything to get her back home, there had only been one person in his mind. Danzo. Even when Naruto had been just a little toddler, the man hounded the Third to give Naruto to him and make her the perfect tool for the village.

It wouldn't surprise Kakashi if the man would do something underhanded the moment word reached that Naruto was in the Elemental Countries again.

"Did Naruto make it clear to you of just how dangerous the Elemental Countries are?" Kakashi asked. He closed his eye and thought of the numerous scenarios that could happen to those children. Those breeding programs were a nightmare for him to think about, and he still recalled the numerous stories that his fellow ANBU had of the civil war in Kirigarakure.

No one deserved to go through that hell.

"She made it clear and that is why I wanted help to convince Principal Nezu not to send any of the children over there," Aizawa explained. The man took a sip of his own coffee, eyes closed as he took another deep breath. "There is very little chance that all of those children will come out of there with their whole body intact or mind. We sent Naruto to therapy because she wasn't mentally healthy when she was here. I don't want that to happen to the other kids."

Kakashi grimaced at the reminder of the therapy. It still bothered him how much he hadn't taken notice of his student's mental health. The things he thought could only be apply to Sasuke had also been applied to the girl that he always believed was strong. There was no way he would allow Naruto to go back there unless she was completely healthy.

He also knew Tsunade wanted Naruto back in Konoha, but Kakashi needed the woman to find a way to make sure that those councilmembers wouldn't be able to lay a hand on the girl. The girl was considered a missing nin and given the right ammunition, those civilian council might demand for either the arrest or murder of the girl.

"Naruto is also in danger if she goes back," Kakashi grimaced and took a sip of his coffee. "Naruto might contain the Kyuubi but her actions meant that she holds no power over them. The civilian council has always hated Naruto from the moment the Third Hokage announced who the jinchuuriki was. Do you know how many times they tried to call for her death?"

 _Why let the demon brat live? That thing should be killed, Hokage-sama!_

His stomach always rolled whenever Kakashi recalled the cruel words spoken by one of the civilian councilmembers. The Third had been so furious with those words, roaring at them that it had been the decree and wish of Minato that the girl was seen as a hero to the village.

The coffee cup in Aizawa's hand cracked under his words while Kakashi kept his expression completely blank and calm. Rage flashed before his eyes and it made Kakashi feel grateful that his student had found another person who could visible show their rage to the world. He might have improved from his younger years but Kakashi must always guard his emotions.

"Are they so blinded by their grief that they can't see an innocent child?" Kakashi nodded and Aizawa took another deep breath. "If you know this then why send a search party for her? There is very little chance that those people could forgive her. Does your Hokage even have enough sway to make sure they wouldn't hurt her?"

"She holds some power but if Naruto can't get all of the shinobi council to back her up then she might be severely punished," Kakashi observed. He knew Sakura thought that both Naruto and Sasuke wouldn't get huge punishment if she went to Tsunade, but there was only so much the woman could do. Koharu and Homura supported Danzo more than they supported the two Hokage.

They would not be swayed so easily and the civilian council hated Naruto. The shinobi council would be with Naruto if Kakashi excluded the elders, but even then it wouldn't be enough. The Uchiha clan was gone except for Sasuke. The Senju clan just had Tsunade and the woman couldn't vote for both the Senju clan and as Hokage. The Namikaze clan was extinct. Since Kushina had come from a higher clan, Minato had relinquished any right that Naruto had of the name Namikaze. The other members of the Namikaze clan had died in the war.

Unless Naruto had a relative from her father's side of the family then Naruto was in trouble.

"How high is there a possibility that they would kill her?" Aizawa questioned.

Kakashi sighed. "It is a 75% possibility. What Naruto did isn't something that can be taken lightly. She might not have betrayed Konoha and joined a criminal like Sasuke, and while she hadn't hurt anyone from Konoha with the intention to kill…well she still abandoned the village and in the eyes of the councilmembers: Naruto is a weapon of war. The Hokage hadn't officially declared Naruto a missing nin but the civilian council and the elders don't see things the way Hokage nor the others see it."

"For being so bright, she really didn't think things through," Aizawa commented under his breath. Kakashi nodded and took another sip of his coffee. He already informed Tsunade about what Naruto was up to and of the girl's plans. He also confirmed that Jiraiya had been the one to send the girl here, which made sense when Shikamaru and him connected all the dots.

When he read through the files and the observations made by the Hyuga Heiress of Naruto's mental state in the hospital, it made sense why Jiraiya send the girl here.

"It will be very hard for Naruto to get herself out of this mess," Kakashi commented. He pressed his finger against his head as his mind swirled with several possibilities in which Naruto could escape her punishment. "I know that all the heirs and heiress of the clans support Naruto, but the numbers in the civilian council outweighs the shinobi clan and those elders are furious with what Naruto did."

"Would it help if she has the backing of her mother's clan?"

Kakashi grimaced and shook his head. "They have an honorary seat but it wouldn't be enough to sway everything in her favour and if she undergoes interrogation…"

Maybe it would have been better if all of them turned a blind eye to Naruto's actions.

"And what about her father's clan?"

"The clan was already small even before the Third Shinobi War," Kakashi took a deep breath and grimaced as he recalled how blank Minato became when it was announced his own father had died in the field. "After the Third Shinobi War, Minato-sensei was the last one. Unless he has some family member that we can claim then there is no Namikaze family to back her up."

His teacher had been their miracle child as Minato-sensei's mother would always say whenever Rin used to ask the old lady about why she never had more kids, even though it was clear to everyone that she loved children.

It had been her love for children that allowed her to look past those whisker marks on Naruto's cheeks and take care of her for the first month of her life. The adoration the woman had for Naruto had been the reason that those civilians murdered her.

It had been the reason the Third placed bodyguards around Naruto until she became a kunoichi.

* * *

 _Big brother, do you ever resent me for having a Quirk?_

It was sunny days like these whenever Mitsuki walked passed the playground and saw happy siblings that she recalled her calm older brother. They might have had different fathers but not once did she ever think of Minato as anything but her brother. When she met Masaru, he reminded her of the big brother that she missed so dearly.

Minato had been so calm while she had been so wild. Their mother claimed that her brother took after his father while Mitsuki took after her mother in attitude. Ying and yang as her father would always joke whenever her mother used to make that joke. Her brother used to laugh at the joke while Mitsuki just scowled at him.

Those memories used to give her joy but now all Mitsuki could feel was sadness. When Katsuki was born, she initially wanted to name him after her brother. If her brother couldn't be there to see the birth of his nephew then she would name her child as a way to honour him. But then Katsuki opened those big lungs of his and Mitsuki knew she couldn't name him Minato.

Katsuki was loud and Minato had always been so quiet. When Katsuki became friends with Izuku, Mitsuki had been overjoyed. Izuku might be no Minato, but the adoration that the boy had for heroes and the way he was so nervous reminded her of her big brother. If Minato had a child, she presumed the child would have been like Minato.

"Hello Bakugou-san," Mitsuki blinked her eyes and swirled her head around, red eyes growing wide at the sight of All Might standing beside her. For a brief moment she wondered if Katsuki did something reckless again, it had been a disappointment when her son got himself kidnapped. Then again, it wasn't the first time that Katsuki disappointed or angered her.

She used to tell him to be good to Izuku and that he needed to protect him. Mitsuki couldn't protect her Quirkless brother with her Quirk, but Katsuki could protect Izuku. She told him stories about his uncle and how much she wished she could have protected him from those bullies.

Maybe if she had a stronger Quirk then her brother wouldn't have gotten beaten up by those bullies.

"Hello All Might," she greeted. "Did Katsuki do…"

The man shook his head and gestured for her to take a seat on the bench. Frowning, Mitsuki seated on the bench and raised her eyebrow when the blond-haired man handed her a file. Didn't she tell him that everything was fine? Her mother might have died blaming All Might but her mother always knew Minato's father wanted him.

"I spent a lot of years thinking about what happened to your brother," All Might sighed. "There were no clues or any sight of your brother and his father but I finally have some clues about what happened to your brother."

Mitsuki pressed her lips into a thin line. "Do you think he is alive?"

All Might stared at her with sadness and pity. Mitsuki shook her head and took a deep breath, wishing she could deny his words. It had always been a possibility. Her mother declared her brother was dead when no one came forward with him. But a part of her always held onto the hope that Minato was still alive, happily married with a kid.

"How do you know if he…"

The blond-haired man sighed. "Do you know that Bakugou has a classmate called Uzumaki Naruto?"

 _Uzumaki Naruto?_ She scrunched her eyebrows and hummed as the memory of the Sports Festival came to her mind. The girl looked a lot like her older brother and for a brief time Mitsuki wondered if the girl might have been related to Minato's father or Minato. But then Katsuki claimed that Uzumaki didn't have any family members and she just began to doubt everything.

"Her father was called Namikaze Minato," All Might opened the file for her and her throat tightened when she read the DNA profile. Tears threatened to consume her but Mitsuki held it back. "I didn't think much of it but I noticed she shared some similarities to young Bakugou and I remembered young Minato's face. So I took a strand of young Uzumaki's hair and ran it against the database."

"And?"

She didn't want her hope to dwindle.

"Young Uzumaki's father is your brother," All Might confirmed. Mitsuki let out a deep breath and flipped through the file, reading through the handwritten notes the retired hero added. The match showed a relationship between them. She flipped to the other page, throat tightening again when she saw the picture of Uzumaki Naruto.

"How did my brother die? And what happened to his wife?" Mitsuki asked. "And where was he the whole time?"

All Might took one deep breath, flickered his eyes to the area behind them and gestured for someone to come out. It wasn't long before a silver-haired man walked up towards her, dark eyes looking at her with sadness and all Mitsuki could wonder was did they know each other? This must have been the first time that they met each other.

"This is Jiraiya-san," All Might replied. "And he will tell you everything that he knows about what happened to your brother. He was your brother's teacher and he is also young Uzumaki's godfather."

Jiraiya. The name sounded familiar for some strange reason; it sounded almost like the author of that book series her husband liked to read. She snorted. She loved her husband but he did a terrible job of hiding his books from her. Honestly if Mitsuki didn't know she raised Katsuki better, she would honestly believe it was her sixteen-year-old son's book.

"All Might surprise me when he told me that there is a chance that Minato was born here," Jiraiya explained, taking a seat right beside her. "I knew his father and stepmother, so you can imagine my surprise when I learnt that the woman who Minato called his mother wasn't actually his birth mother or that one of my friends lied to me."

He was friends with the man that took her older brother away from her. The man who made her mother a wreck every single day, the woman that never praised her no matter how hard she worked. The man that stopped all the laughter in their family.

"Why did he take him?" Mitsuki asked.

Jiraiya pressed his lips into a thin line. "My guess? Because he was the heir and the wife he loved, couldn't give him a child to carry on the clan's name."

"Clan?" She felt her head throbbed and her temper rose but Mitsuki held it in. This was the closest she would ever get to having answers. Her mother spent so many years wondering about what happened to her son. They questioned everything, trying to figure out why the absent father-figure had suddenly decided to pop into his son's life again.

"Minato's father came from one of the few shinobi clans in Konoha, which is a small village in one of the countries in the Elemental Countries," Mitsuki furrowed her eyebrows and Jiraiya sighed.

She kept quiet as the man explained to her about the concept of the Elemental Countries, telling her about the five major countries in the other continent. That side of the world could use Chakra and they used it to fight battles, murder and even kidnap some people. It was interesting to say the least, but the fact Minato could use it was mind blowing.

' _It isn't the end of the world, Minato-kun!'_

That had been her mother's words.

' _Haven't you heard? Her brother is Quirkless! He is practically useless!'_

Those had been her classmates words when someone found out about her brother not having a Quirk. Mitsuki punched them real good in the face for that—her father hadn't been thrilled with her actions. Her mom gave her a high five for defending her brother, but Minato…he had been upset.

' _I can't be a hero if I don't have a Quirk, right? And I can't get a good job with everyone asking me about what my Quirk is!'_

Her brother had a very bitter smile when he said those words if Mitsuki recalled it correctly. Their mother tried so hard to cheer him up. Her father tried to reassure him that he always had a place in the small company, but Minato just smiled and pretended everything was fine. If his biological father came and offered him a chance to learn how to use Chakra, then it made sense.

She hated how society looked down on Quirkless people and hated how her son followed them like a bunch of sheep.

"So his wife was barren and he needed to carry on the clan…so he chose to take my brother?" Mitsuki asked. Jiraiya nodded, flickering his head to look at All Might, and the woman sighed. "Was he happy in that place? I know he wasn't happy here. It is tough having a Quirk but being a Quirkless kid means you are going to get bullied."

Jiraiya nodded. "Your brother was a genius and graduated very young."

"That doesn't make me feel better when you told me that you guys use child soldiers," Mitsuki barked. The silver-haired man gulped, sliding away from her and she grimaced. _I must rein in my temper like I always tell Katsuki._ She needed to follow what she preached.

She also needed to meet her niece and stopped those terrible jokes about her son having a crush on her.

God, she really was a sicko for saying all those jokes to her son

* * *

"Would you like some tea, Kakashi-san?" Kakashi could only dumbly nod his head as his brain tried to process the sight of the walking animal in front of him that Yuuei High called their principal. It was one thing for a summon to do this but a whole different story for him to see this. Even when he found out that this part of the world was here and had lived here for a month…well it was still quite a shock to see in real life.

"Thank you for meeting me in such short notice, Nezu-san." The animal smiled but Kakashi felt the temperature in the room dropped when he saw the calculating look in those eyes. For some strange reason, it felt like he was walking into a trap. Maybe it was a trap and he didn't know it. From what Aizawa told him, the creature was very intelligent.

"I presume you are here because Eraserhead doesn't want to send any of the students to the Elemental Countries," Kakashi nodded as the principal took a sip of his tea. The scent waffled through the air, seeped into the slight opening from his mask and relaxed the Jounin. "He wants you to convince me not to send our students to the Elemental Countries."

"It isn't a place for them," Kakashi informed him. "By having the Sports Festival broadcasted in the Elemental Countries, you have put all those children in danger. Until Naruto was shown on television, no one believed that Japan or any of the other countries were real."

Nezu nodded. "I know and it is also because of Naruto's presence that children have been kidnapped."

Kakashi frowned as the principal threw to him the newspaper of the day. A smiling boy, who was no older than five, was in the photograph and the headlines cried out of his disappearance. He scanned through the article, lips pressed into a thin line as his brain quickly scanned for any hints of what made the man believed that someone from the Elemental Countries took the child.

It was always possible when Kakashi considered the strange Kekkei Genkai that some of the countries had to offer.

"The spike of disappearance of these kids were low before Uzumaki appeared on television," Nezu explained. "Now it is only a correlation but these things always seemed to slightly increase after the Sports Festival. Yet this year was the highest rate of missing children. Now it could be the Quirk rings but Quirk rings have buyers and those buyers would need to have a very good reason to buy them."

"You think those kids are being sold to one of the villages," Kakashi said calmly.

Nezu nodded. "I am certain that they are being sold to either the village or to a person in that part of the world. I'm also certain that most of the heroes can't save those kids because their level can't compete with them. How do I make my students stronger if I want them to get those kids back? Or if one of the Heroes that they choose to intern decide to recklessly charge in there?"

"Putting them in serious danger wouldn't help them," Kakashi said calmly. "Naruto is strong and she has improved leaps and bounds…but it isn't because she lived there. She got stronger because she had people that were willing to put the time and effort with her. Sakura got stronger because Tsunade taught her but if you send those kids…you will break them."

There was nothing about his words that were lies. Naruto was probably stronger than a lot of people gave her credit for. His student had a family here that took the time and effort to teach her about her clan and their arts. Jiraiya probably had to correct any errors that Naruto had after giving up on school. This wasn't because of the Elemental Countries.

He wished he could say it, but it was support that helped Naruto.

"Then you help us teach them and if one of the heroes decide to take one of my students to the Elemental Countries then you or one member of the search party will go with them as their protector and guide," Kakashi blinked. "They won't intervene unless they think the hero or the child isn't capable of dealing with it."

Nezu pulled out a cigarette from his pocket as Kakashi ran his hand through his hair. Had he been tricked? Because it felt like he was being tricked the whole time. Nezu continued, "And you will help those kids get ready for the Elemental Countries. If you think they can't protect themselves from those kidnappers then get them ready for it."

"You still plan…"

"I will delay it," Nezu confirmed. "But you will help me fine tune the details and make sure that Uzumaki doesn't get herself killed by your politicians. You tell me everything that you know of all those people that might want to kill…"

"How did you know?" Kakashi asked; his tone was calm but his brain tried to figure out how the animal knew about the dilemma. It had been in his mind to inform the man about the problem Naruto might face, but it seemed like the Principal knew of the issue.

Nezu lit up his cigarette and took out a puff. "Uzumaki informed All Might that she is considered a Jinchuuriki. If one was to translate that word then it means the power of human sacrifice. Now if my brain was to make sense of that then Uzumaki is a weapon for your village. Now considering that it is a military village, I presume if one abandons their village then only death awaits them. I presume there is also a lot of people that dislikes young Uzumaki because of what she represents, which means this would give them the perfect opportunity to call for her death. So now we need…"

Kakashi nodded and just took another sip of his tea. The bitterness of the tea helped him to regain focus on the issue at hand. Somehow inside that insane animal's head, he managed to trick him into agreeing to help train these kids and was helping him figure out how to keep Naruto alive.

"I will also inform any of the Heroes that investigate the missing case and decides to take Naruto in as their intern that she is not allowed to step one foot out of Japan until her safety is guaranteed."

He really didn't see any of this coming.

* * *

 **A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter, especially of the interactions between the characters. What pairings do you wish to see in this story.**


	67. Chapter 67

**A/N: I would like to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows as well as everyone that reviewed the last chapter.**

* * *

Naruto blinked at the sight of a blond-haired woman, Bakugou and her godfather sitting on the couch.

She could guess from the woman's appearance that she was Bakugou's mother. It was really startling how similar her classmate looked like his mother from his blond-hair to their eyes. There was probably very little resemblance between Bakugou and his father.

"What's happening?"

Jiraiya patted for her to take the empty seat beside him. She furrowed her eyebrow, settling down to the seat beside him. Naruto's eyes focused on the blond-haired woman.

There was a sadness radiating from her eyes as those red eyes focused on her. No tears flowed out of her eyes but Naruto could tell the woman seemed to be upset for some reason. She darted her eyes to Bakugou but he kept swirling his head between the people around them.

It seemed like he was as a loss as her.

"Naruto, there is something that you need to know about your Father." Jiraiya said; his tone was gentle and calm. He rubbed circles around her back, something he only did whenever he had some news to tell her that he thought might upset her. It almost brought a frown to her face as her mind tried to figure out what her godfather wanted to tell her.

"Should we be doing this with them here?" Naruto asked slowly. She darted her eyes towards the stairs, no sign of any of her newly arrived classmates were going to come down. Shouto was out visiting his mother with his older sister; he wouldn't be back till tonight and so she probably wouldn't have her support here.

"It involves them too," Jiraiya explained slowly. "Do you remember what you know about where your father was born?"

Blue eyes slanted as her mind tried to understand what this had to do with Bakugou's mother. Several ideas swirled around her head about what was happening now. History books stated her father had been born in some remote place in Hi no Kuni. The name of the place had never been mentioned but a lot of things about her father was never mentioned.

"Do I need to say it in front of Mrs. Bakugou?" Naruto asked. She darted her eyes to the woman, who hadn't stopped staring at her from the moment she stepped through the doors. The woman smiled encouragingly at her and there was something about her smile that felt familiar to her.

She had seen that smile somewhere but Naruto had no idea where.

"She knows about Elemental Countries," Jiraiya reassured. Naruto raised her eyebrow, blue eyes flashed with confusion at how this woman would know. It seemed like she was not the only one confused because Bakugou swirled his head at his mother, eyebrows raised at this piece of information.

"Dad was born in an unknown location in Hi no Kuni," Naruto commented.

Bakugou snorted, looking almost faintly amused at her response. He slipped his hands into his pockets, kicked his legs onto the table and this earned a scowl from his mother. The blond-haired woman wacked her son on the head, earning a wince from All Might and an amused look from Jiraiya.

"How many times have I told you not to put your damn feet on the table?" She barked.

"I can do whatever the hell I want, you Old Hag!" Bakugou grumbled, putting his feet down.

 _I have a strange sense of déjà vu._ Naruto chewed on her bottom lip and mentally ran her head through her memories, trying to remember what was so familiar about this behaviour. Nothing came to her mind but she was sure that something was going to come up soon.

"What does my Dad's birthplace have to do with anything?" She repeated.

The scowl on Bakugou's mother face faded, replaced with one of great sadness. Naruto's heart clenched like it always did whenever someone was in pain. It should go away this desire to please people, to make people happy but it never went away. Maybe it was the result of not having people paying much attention to her; it made her more observant.

She certainly had always been more observant then people gave her credit for.

"Your father was born in Musutafu, Japan," Mitsuki said softly. A smile played on her lips, stretched so wide that it almost seemed fake. If it wasn't for the fondness radiating in those red eyes then Naruto would have thought the smile was just plastic, insincere and unnatural.

Blue eyes grew large at those words. Naruto turned to look at Jiraiya to confirm what this woman was telling her. He nodded, his black eyes silently telling her that he had been in the dark about this until recently. She believed him. Jiraiya was a lot of things but when he promised to be honest with her, he kept his word. The only question was how did this woman know?

"You talk like you know Whisker's father," Bakugou observed.

His mother nodded. "I should know him. Until I went to kindergarten, her father was my dearest and constant companion. The one to cheer me up whenever your grandmother kept complaining about how I wasn't as smart as him."

Naruto chewed on her bottom lip and stared at the blond-haired woman, eyebrows scrunched together as she tried to process this information. Her head throbbed, telling her she probably needed to get some sleep soon because those nightmares weren't going to fade away anytime soon. The words spoken by that girl triggered her to relive her actions.

The knowledge they were going to the Elemental Countries didn't help.

"How do you know my father?" Naruto asked. She kept her tone soft as the memories of Kamino Ward was shoved to the back of her mind; to be relived in another time.

Red eyes softened and Naruto blinked when the woman placed her hand on her face, red eyes fixated on her blue eyes. Her throat tightened when tears welled up in the woman's eyes, earning a blank-face expression from Bakugou. The boy robotically turned his head to the two adults, silently asking them about what was happening to his mother.

She guessed this was not normal behaviour for Bakugou's mother.

"I always wonder what my brother's child would look like," Mitsuki admitted. Red eyes softened and the grief in her tone overwhelmed Naruto, barely allowing her to process what the woman was trying to tell her. "You look like a female version of him but the shape of your eyes must have come from your mother. Mum never thought she was going to get a grandchild from Minato."

' _You look like a female version of him.'_

Naruto's throat tightened and tears threatened to come out. She always knew she looked like her father from Jiraiya and the memories she had of the single photo that they had of him in their history books. But to hear someone else confirm it made her happy.

To know she had more family made her happy.

"Old Hag, what are you trying to say?" Bakugou roared, whipping his head back and forth between them. Disbelief flashed before his eyes, telling her that he did not want to believe what the woman was trying to tell the two of them.

Mitsuki raised her eyebrow. "You know damn well what I'm saying Katsuki! I know you are smarter than this."

"No way!" Bakugou crossed his arms together and furiously shook his head. "You can't expect me to believe that Whiskers and I are related. Uncle Minato was Quirkless and like Deku—you said it yourself. From what Whiskers told me, her father was a fucking badass. There is no fucking way…"

 _Dad was Quirkless?_ Naruto darted her eyes to Jiraiya, focusing on the expression of her godfather. A smile played on her godfather's lips as Bakugou continued to vehemently deny the relationship between them. Both joy and sadness shone through those black eyes as well as regret, earning a frown from the blonde.

Why did her godfather feel so much regret.

"How did he end up in Konoha? And how could he use Chakra?" Naruto asked. She fiddled with her shirt as thousand question swirled around her brain, threatening to overwhelm her again. "Only someone born from a person that was born in the Elemental Countries. Neither you nor Explosive Head can use chakra, so how did my Dad end up having Chakra?"

Bakugou nodded, looking almost visibly pained to agree with her. If anyone should be pained, it should be her. She might have made jokes about him being her brother, but it was another thing for her to be actually related to him. It would mean all those jokes that Mina had made about them was now sick and twisted. It meant she was actually related to a former bully.

"My mother was a little bit of a wild child growing up—" Mitsuki began.

Bakugou snorted. "Grandma says that she was a perfect little angel growing up but Uncle Minato's father ruined her."

"Your Grandma also says that she won't swear inside the house but she did it often," Mitsuki said dryly. Naruto straightened her back at this knowledge, her ear twitching at hearing stories about her grandmother. Uncle Kenji only talked about her mother, telling her that her grandparents died before he had a good memory of them.

This was her opportunity to learn about her father's mother.

"If I had known about it earlier then I would…" Jiraiya gulped when Naruto narrowed her eyes at him, daring him to say something perverted about her grandmother. He smiled innocently, holding his hands up as if to tell her that he actually had no plans of acting like his usual self, and slowly slid away from her.

"Anyways Mum met your grandfather in a bar," Mitsuki replied. "He made her laugh and charmed her out of her pants as she would always like to say whenever she got drunk and my father pissed her off. They kept meeting over the next couple of months and well one of their meetings ended up…making your father."

Naruto pressed her fingers against her head. Her brain had shut down as it tried to process what her aunt told her about her grandparents. Unlike the love story of her parents, her grandparents did not seem to share the same romantic setting as them. It seemed almost normal if you asked her, which was strange when Naruto considered how not normal her father ended up becoming.

"They broke up a few months before Minato-niisan was born," Mitsuki continued. "Your grandfather said he wasn't ready to settle down and that while he loved Mum… it wasn't the love that she wanted. Mum swore at him so many times, telling him never to see her or Minato-niisan."

 _Well if grandfather broke her heart then I can understand why._

"He didn't make any contact with Mum till Minato turned six." Mitsuki pressed her lips into a thin line, red eyes darted to the staircase where a few heads seemed to be peaking out. "By then Mum had fallen in love with my Father and had me. I think watching the way my father interacted with me and Minato made her soften up a little and allow your grandfather to make contact with my brother."

 _It doesn't explain why my father left his home._ Naruto locked her eyes on the centrepiece on the table while Mitsuki stared at her, looking uncertain on what to say. She flashed her a smile, encouraging her to finish the story of what happened between her grandparents and her father.

"Minato-niisan was shy when he first met his father," Mitsuki continued. "He didn't actually want to meet him but Mum encouraged him—I think she regretted doing that in the end. Minato-niisan was actually nervous that your grandfather wouldn't like him because he was Quirkless. I think you can realize how hard it must be six-years-old and be different from your classmates."

 _Mummy says I can't play with you. She says that you are a bad influence._

Sakura's words echoed in her ear, reminding her of the cruelty that children could be. All the other children had never been singled out by the other children's parents. Her heart clenched as the flood of memories flashed before her eyes, threatening to consume her again.

She inhaled and exhaled. _I'm a fighter and a survivor._ She chanted the words in her mind, trying to remind herself that lonely little girl was now a distant memory. Discrimination against her was apparent in Konoha but here she was a teenage girl filled with so much hope and dreams.

"A few months after meeting your grandfather, Minato decided out of nowhere that he was going to go to school without waiting for me," Mitsuki said softly. She pressed her hands against her face, chest rising and falling as if the woman was trying to control her emotions. "We didn't think much of it until the school called Mum, telling her that Minato-niisan didn't come for gym. It was then Mum realized something was up."

Naruto just listened silently, blue eyes becoming more and more emotionless as her brain swirled with information of the pain that her father caused. A large part of her understood her father's reason for going to Konoha but a small part of her resented him. It was petty of her, childish of her but Naruto was only fifteen.

She could understand why her mother never sent her to Uncle Kenji. Her mother had no idea if her clansmember were alive but her father? He knew he had family, so why would he do this to her? He could have sent her to live with his family. There must have been a reason her father would do this to her.

There had to be a reason he allowed her not to be raised by family.

* * *

" _Half-and-half Bastard, you should go fucking check up on your girlfriend like a good boyfriend."_

Todoroki rubbed the back of his neck, mismatch eyes focused on the bedroom door of his girlfriend. Bakugou told him those words as soon as he came back from meeting his mother, shoving a bowl of hot ramen to him and barking at him to go see Naruto.

He didn't know what happened but something must have happened for Bakugou to visualize his worry and concern about Naruto. The fact his classmate wasn't the one to comfort her, told Todoroki something was up. Out of everyone in their class, the only person Bakugou seemed to make some effort to comfort was Naruto.

Todoroki shook his head and took a deep breath before knocking the door. For a brief moment, he heard nothing nor had any indication Naruto heard his knock. He nodded, his lips pressed into a thin line and Todoroki repeated the action. Something must have happened for the girl not to answer the door, Naruto was always eager to open the door.

"Naruto, it's me." He said softly. He took a seat on the floor, leaning his back against the wall near her door. His mismatch eyes locked on the steaming bowl of ramen that Bakugou have made for Naruto. Situation like these were when he felt out of his depth, lost on how to get Naruto to open the door. "Bakugou told me that you are upset. He thinks that you don't want to talk to him so he sent me here with a bowl of ramen. I'm here if you want to talk."

There was a shuffle of feet behind the doors and the door to his girlfriend's room opened, revealing the tired eyes of his girlfriend. Blue eyes stared tiredly at him, a smile plastered on her face and Todoroki raised his eyebrow at her.

The smile slipped and the girl sighed, understanding he was not willing to tolerate her desire to bottle things up again. He stood up, picked up the bowl of ramen and held it over his head as his girlfriend jumped up to snatch it from his hand. She stomped her feet, blue eyes not looking one bit amused by his actions.

He wasn't trying to amuse her, nor was he going to give Naruto her ramen until they talked about what upset her.

"You are really going to deny your upset girlfriend—her favourite food?" Todoroki nodded and his girlfriend exhaled. She straightened her back, waving her hand to his room and he took it as his invitation to come inside her room.

His shoulder brushed against hers as he squeezed past his girlfriend. His body heated up like it always did whenever Todoroki touched Naruto. Sometimes he wondered if his body would ever stopped making such reactions whenever he was close to his girlfriend. It seemed to get really worse whenever Naruto teased him in some way.

He took a seat on the bed, placed the bowl of ramen on the nightstand and focused on Naruto. Tiredness and confusion shone through those blue eyes, telling him about her state of mind. Despite what Bakugou just told him, the girl was not upset. It seemed like she had a lot of things happening inside her head but sadness was not the emotion he saw.

It was anger.

"Do you want to tell me why you are so angry?" He asked. Naruto took a seat beside him, held her hand up and took the steaming bowl of ramen from her nightstand. She breathed in the ramen, looking almost completely at peace from just smelling the food.

He didn't know about his other classmates, but it seemed like the best thing to use when to calm down Naruto was a bowl of ramen. Todoroki knew it cheered her up but Bakugou seemed to have an understanding how the bowl was enough to calm down her rage.

It should worry him about how much Bakugou understood Naruto.

"My Dad was born here," Naruto explained slowly. She fixed her eyes on the bowl of ramen, dropping her head down and hiding her bright blue eyes from his. "This whole time I thought my Dad was born in Konoha and that everything they wrote about him was right. He hid his heritage from Jiraiya and I'm starting to wonder if he hid it from my mother too."

"He must have had a good reason to hide it from the world," Todoroki observed. "If he told everyone he was born here then it would have put a lot of people in danger."

The whiskered girl nodded. Naruto put the bowl of ramen back on the nightstand, gently pushing it against the worn down copy of the Tales of the Gutsy Ninja. She pressed the sides of her head, eyebrows knitted together and she let out a deep breath. It worried him to see her like this. It was almost impossible for his girlfriend not to finish a bowl of ramen.

She worshipped ramen.

"I know my father wouldn't put people in danger but why didn't he send a message to tell his mother that he was fine? Or even visit her?" Naruto asked. She ran her hand through her hair, detangling the tangles in her hair. "From how Bakuogu's mother talk about her relationship with my father and the way her mother felt about my father's actions that they love him. Didn't he miss them? I mean being discriminated is bad but I always thought if you have a loving family then…"

 _It wouldn't be so bad._ He knew those were the words Naruto wanted to say to him. A part of him wanted to agree with her but Todoroki could not bring himself to do it. It was wrong for him to judge since he didn't have all the facts. He never experienced what Naruto's father went through— none of them did. Most of his classmates in Middle School and Elementary School had Quirks.

Todoroki frowned as he realized he couldn't recall how those classmates had been treated. He shook his head. This was not the time for him to think about those classmates now. It was time for him to focus on how to help Naruto make sense of what her father did.

"Mitsuki told me that my grandmother died thinking her son never reached passed the age of six," Naruto said quietly. "All I could think of was the fact my father had a loving mother, who adored the hell out of him and he just decided to leave with his father. He might have been young then, but what about later? Didn't he think of telling his biological mother that she was going to have a granddaughter too?"

Todoroki focused his attention on the plush fox doll lying on the other side of the bed. "Do you ever stop to think that maybe it is the same reason you didn't contact your godfather? Or Hinata-san? He knew his mother loved him and he disappointed her by leaving her, which was why he never contacted her. Maybe he thought your grandmother would never understand his decision. When you think of that in that way…the both of you are similar to each other."

"He had a loving mother and a sister," Naruto insisted. "And I'm not similar to him in that way. I thought no one would care if I leave Konoha and I had no one that showed they cared for me. I was blinded by my pain but he had them. Do you know how much I would have killed to have a family that supported me in Konoha? Maybe if I had a family member growing up then maybe my pain wouldn't have been so bad."

"Or maybe it would have been the same," Todoroki said. "The way you experienced discrimination is different from how your father experienced it. You might think your father could have handled it with a loving family, but what if his family pitied him? What if he saw himself as a weakling because of it? Quirkless people and people with Quirks deemed weak are always treated harshly by the world around us."

He felt a headache coming on as the distant memory of Touya flashed before his eyes. The terrible taunts his father made towards his brother echoed in his ears and turquoise eyes that used to be filled with warmth was flooded with anger and embarrassment. He clutched his head, tuning out the cries of Naruto as a husky voice echoed out in his ears.

 _What are you looking at, Shouto? Get the hell out of here before that shitty bastard finds out that you snuck into the training room!_

 _I pray to God that you never get your Quirk or that your Quirk is worst then mine because_ _ **he**_ _would make your life hell._

"What happened?" Naruto asked, blue eyes flashing with concern. She had her hands on his shoulder and her eyebrows knitted together as Shouto tried to make sense of what just happened. It wasn't normal for im to get these kind of memories or flashbacks. Most of the time his flashback revolved around his mother, never Touya.

He had never been close to his brother.

"I remembered how I once snuck into Endeavour's training room and saw Touya's burnt hands," he admitted. His throat dried up as he recalled the hatred coming out of his brother's eyes. "He always take things too far in his training but it must have been too much for Touya, because his hands had burnt scars and he was in so much pain."

Naruto closed her eyes and grabbed hold of him as the memory replayed the whole thing again. He had been confused and scared, not understanding what happened. He remembered calling out for his mother, telling her that Touya had been hurt. His mother's eyes flared with so much anger, Natsuo had been furious while Fuyumi looked pain.

All he could remember was being confused about what happened and why his big brother didn't want him to have a powerful Quirk like him. When Shouto thought about it, he wanted to be like his brother. He had been so jealous of his brother for having their father's attention. Touya had the attention of their father while he didn't get any attention until his Quirk appeared.

It made sense now why Touya never wanted him to get their father's attention.

"What happened?" Naruto asked softly.

Shouto cleared his throat and kept all his emotions from flooding out. The girl already had a lot of things to deal with, it was not fair for him to release all of his pain and sadness in her. Naruto might not mind but he did. Todoroki never wanted to make her feel upset about how he felt on what happened to his family.

"Endeavour went too far in his training and Touya went over the temperature limit that his body can take," Shouto answered tightly. "The man didn't seem to have paid much attention that his eldest son was in pain. He probably was too upset about what happened to notice it. Touya told me to scam because Endeavour would be angry that I snuck in to see his training."

"Shouto…"

"I forgot that I envied him and I wanted to see why Endeavour seemed to have paid so much attention to him," Naruto blinked and Shouto rubbed the sides of his head. "How the fuck could I envy him? That man had been a monster throughout our whole life! How could I…"

"Because he is your father and it is only natural that a son wants their father to pay attention to them," Naruto said quietly. Todoroki pressed his lips into a thin line, wishing to deny the truth behind those words. He should have hated his father from the very beginning, feared him too but Shouto forgot of his early childhood when he wanted Endeavour to look at him. "You were young and you didn't know better."

"But I should have known…"

"You were three," Naruto reminded him. "From what I know from those terrible D-rank misisions from hell, kids that age have no understanding on what is considered dangerous or not. He was abusive but he was still your father. Most children long to have a loving communication with their father…even if he is a bastard."

"Well I don't want that now," Todoroki declared. "I hate that bastard."

Naruto nodded. "I think you hate and love him too. I think if anything ever happens to that shitty bastard, you would be upset because no matter how badly he treated you and your siblings…he is still your father. Of course I might be wrong since I don't know anything about father-son relationship of your kind."

Shouto really doubted that he would be upset if anything happened to Endeavour. The man made their lives hell but he wasn't going to tell Naruto this. She deserved to think that maybe a relationship like his and Endeavour meant it was possible for him to love him.

In his heart, he knew it would be nearly impossible for him to ever see that man as his father.

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 **A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter.**


	68. Chapter 68

**A/N: I would like to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows as well as everyone that reviewed the last chapter.**

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"Kakashi-sensei, what are you doing here?"

Naruto tilted her head, eyebrows furrowed together at the sight of her teacher standing right in front of her. Kakashi wore a suit, looking almost uncomfortable at wearing something so formal. He tugged his collar and shifted in his spot, a lazy smile playing nervously on his lips.

"Your principal tricked me into teaching the students how to survive in the Elemental Countries," Kakashi explained. Naruto blinked and frowned, uncertain on how to feel at this knowledge. She raised her eyebrow at him.

He sighed. "Aizawa-san asked me to help him convince Nezu-san that it was a terrible idea for him to send the students to the Elemental Countries. Your principal used it as an opportunity to convince me to help teach the students on how to defend themselves with their Quirks."

"He must have gotten you real good if you agree to teach in a school."

Naruto loved Kakashi-sensei. He was one of the few people that acknowledged her in the village. The man used to check up on her in her apartment, bringing her vegetables and telling her to eat healthier. But he was not the type that could come to class on time. None of the students would be happy when Kakashi-sensei wouldn't show up to class on time.

"It was either that or the students go to the Elemental Countries without being prepared," Kakashi admitted. He looked at the smiling students that were now walking through the school gates. His eyes lingered at one of the students and Naruto followed his line of sight.

A spikey indigo-haired boy and a blond-haired boy had one arm slung over each other, a bright smile decorating their faces. She blinked when the two boys turned their attention to her. Indigo eyes grew large at the sight of her while the blond-haired boy nudged his arm at him.

The one thing that stood out to Naruto was how much the boy looked like Sasuke. A couple of months ago, she would have broken down at the sight of him. The sight of that teen reminded her of her biggest regret, the regret that caused her to run away like a coward. She tore her eyes away from them even though her heart and eyes begged to watch them.

"He really looks like him, doesn't he?" Kakashi commented lightly. "Except he looks more like the nervous type. Can you imagine Sasuke looking like this?"

The bastard looking like a nervous little boy? God Naruto would have paid a lot of money to see her best friend make an expression that wasn't a glare or a smirk. It would have made her a little bit pleased to know that even the great Sasuke could act like a shy little boy, not some cool asshole. Maybe the girls would have liked her best friend even less if he had been that way.

 _Idiot, don't tell Sakura where I am! I will buy you dinner if you hide me from her and all those fangirls!_

She curled her lips into a smile. Naruto missed those innocent days where Sasuke would bribe her with ramen as he ran away from all those screaming girls. A part of her wondered if he missed those innocent days. Did he long to go back to those days too? Could they go back to those innocent days? They had changed too much in these three years.

She had a bad feeling about what was happening to her best friend.

"I miss him too," Kakashi admitted.

Naruto closed her eyes and stared at her schoolmates, watching them as they walked to the main courtyard where the opening ceremony was taking place. She should follow them, make sure that she didn't skip it but the small ache in her heart had gotten bigger. It always seemed to get larger whenever someone brought up the mention of her teammate.

"You know my classmates and friends in Japan don't seem to understand the bond that I have with Sasuke," Naruto twirled her fingers around her hair. "My therapist tries hard to convince me that the relationship I have with Sasuke isn't healthy…that it is more toxic than healthy."

Kakashi nodded. "I can see why they think the relationships we all have with him isn't healthy. He chose to leave and instead of accepting his decision, both you and Sakura want to bring him back to Konoha."

"Do you know that I also want to punch him in the face and call him a selfish bastard?" Kakashi laughed and Naruto smiled. Her relationship with Sasuke had always been like that. She always called him out for his terrible habits and maybe she understood why he might have liked her for it. "I hate the fact that the council only focused on him and that he is one of the reasons they wanted to exile me."

"You made a hasty decision to leave Konoha," Kakashi pointed out. "I know things were difficult for you, Naruto but you should have waited till the council actually called you out and declared you exile before leaving."

A few months ago, she probably would throw a tantrum with his words. She would have smiled widely and say she knew what she was doing when she ran away. But Naruto hadn't really thought carefully about her actions. It never dawned on her how much it would hurt Hinata or Tsunade to see her run away. All she cared about was herself.

Maybe Shouto was right. She was no better than her father because Minato did the same thing as her. He ran away because he felt just as much as a failure as her. It didn't matter he had a family who loved him, because it meant nothing when there was a constant reminder everywhere.

"Do you know what is my problem, Kakashi-sensei? I never think things through," Naruto admitted. She racked her hands through her hair and let out a small sigh. "I always think of the short-term solution and I never try to see the big picture about everything."

Something told her that her reckless decision to join Yuuei High might have just doomed the people of Japan. It might be stupid of her but the recent kidnapping of children and adults made her think that it was her fault. Her classmates might reassured her if she told them this, but something kept nagging her in the back of her mind.

Naruto just knew that it was her fault that more people were being kidnapped.

It couldn't be coincidence that the increase of kidnappings happened after her debut in the Sport Festival.

* * *

 _Shouto, have you heard or seen from Fuyumi in the last few days? She went out for a couple of drinks with a couple of her colleagues and I haven't heard from her at all._

Shouto carefully schooled his expression as he fixated his eyes on the message Natsuo had sent him. His mind should be focused on the explanation Aizawa-sensei was giving about their new internship and their plans to have Naruto's teacher to help train them to go to the Elemental Countries. But all he could think of was his sister.

Something had been bothering him when he hadn't seen her with his mother. He thought to ask his mum about Fuyumi to see if she had been coming around, but then he put it off. There was the excuse that maybe Fuyumi was busy preparing for the new school term. He might not have been the best brother to his sister, but Shouto knew his sister went overboard when it came to preparing for her lessons.

"Something is bothering you," Naruto commented, keeping her eyes fixated on Aizawa-sensei. Shouto kept his expression completely blank as her blue eyes shone with concern. "You have been looking at your phone even though Aizawa-sensei is now explaining about the internships. Did something happen?"

He shook his head, mismatch eyes avoiding his girlfriend's concerned eyes. It might be true that they were dating and they cared for each other, but Shouto didn't want to burden her with his concern over his sister. She already had a lot of stress from the knowledge they might have to go to the Elemental Countries. If Naruto knew his sister might be missing then she was going to worry even more.

Shouto didn't want to add more burden on her shoulders.

"Uzumaki! Todoroki! Pay attention!" The white binding cloth zipped past Satou and wrapped around both Naruto and Shouto, knocking the two heads together. Naruto smiled sheepishly while Todoroki nodded, earning a sigh from Aizawa and a laugh from Kakashi. "As I was saying, this semester we will be focusing more on internships with Professional Heroes and of preparing everyone for the trip to the Elemental Countries that will take place in the holidays."

"So we are not going to focus more on the normal lessons?" Momo asked, drawing everyone's attention on her.

Aizawa shook his head. "Principal Nezu believes that we need to focus on developing your Quirks better and improve your capabilities for the trip to the Elemental Countries."

"Is the Elemental Countries that dangerous?" Jirou asked. Fear radiated through her eyes and Shouto could understand what brought that fear out. All of the schools usually focused on the normal lessons, but for their principal to find it unimportant spoke volumes of just how serious the situation was.

"You kids are talented," Kakashi reassured, giving them a lazy smile. "But at your current levels, you would be easily kidnaped the moment a ninja from one of the Hidden Villages kidnap you."

Izuku knitted his eyebrows. "Why would they kidnap us?"

"Because of your Quirks," Naruto explained. Everyone swirled their heads at her, eyebrows raised together at this news and the blond-haired girl rubbed the back of her neck. For the first time since Shouto met his girlfriend, she actually looked a little bit embarrassed with the attention. "Not everyone has a Quirk."

"But you have a Quirk?"

"She doesn't have a Quirk," Bakugou called out. Everyone raised their eyebrows at the blond-haired boy, who had a scowl playing on his lips. Shouto slightly raised his eyebrow when he noticed the startled look on Kakashi's face when he stared at his angry classmate.

Was that surprised?

"What do you mean that isn't a Quirk?" Mineta yelled.

Bakugou scowled. "Do I have to speak stupid to you? Whiskers doesn't have a Quirk because her father didn't have a fucking Quirk!"

"And how do you know this?" Kakashi asked lightly. Shouto swirled his head at Naruto and waited for her to explain the reason she hadn't told her teacher that she knew her father. He always presumed she would have come clean to him but judging by her sheepish look, she decided to keep it quiet.

"Because her father was my damn uncle! He got fucking discriminated and laughed at for telling everyone that he was going to become a Hero!"

Silence reined throughout the classroom as everyone tried to process what the furious boy just admitted.

" _What! Naruto and Bakugou are related!"  
_

More and more voices began to chatter as everyone made comments about how this explained so much about the relationship between their two classmates. Naruto just simply slid down her chair, looking almost completely embarrassed as everyone kept comparing the similarities between them. Shouto patted her head, mismatch eyes fixated on Bakugou.

He asked his girlfriend's cousin to help him tell his feelings. Now it really did sound something like one of Fuyumi's books. When his sister found out about this, Shouto could just imagined the countless teasing that he would get from her.

That was if Fuyumi was back home. Natsuo's message and his trip yesterday to the hospital made him think he might need to check up on the house. There was always a probability she went to Touya's hideout, the two of them were close after all but he doubted it.

Fuyumi would have told Endeavour where their eldest brother was. His sister was always trying to make their family into something that it was not. Maybe he should go back home and retraced her steps. No, it would draw more questions from that shitty old man. If the shitty old man hadn't noticed his own daughter was missing then it spoke volumes about how careless he was.

"But Hinata-san used her eyes to see that you weren't in the marble that Shoji caught!" Izuku questioned. "Isn't that a Quirk?"

Naruto nodded. "Yes, it is considered a Quirk or a Kekkai Genkai. People had literally died because of ninjas experimenting on it or because of the inhumane breeding programs. If they see that you have a Kekkai Genkai that is useful or powerful then they would take it for their own."

"But you can't physically take a Quirk!" Momo pointed out.

Kakashi shook his head and pushed his headband up, revealing a red eye that had three dots. "This is an eye that I received from my teammate who had a Quirk," he explained. "Before I received this Kekkai Genkai, I was as Quirkless as you can be. As you can see, I can't turn it off because it isn't something that I inherited from my family."

"What does that Quirk do?" Izuku asked, green eyes lighting up with curiosity.

"It copies jutsu," Naruto answered, folding her arms against her chest and pouted. "It also allows them to predict the movement of their opponent and guess what jutsu is going to be performed. It can also cast an illusion so if you ever see Sasuke or Kakashi…don't ever look them in the eye when you are fighting."

It was a very dangerous and powerful Quirk when Naruto put in that way. Shouto could imagine a lot of people would kill to have a Quirk like that in those countries. Just from the description by itself, he could picture just how difficult it would be to fight someone like that. It was a lot more dangerous then Aizawa's Quirk.

Shouto really wondered if Principal Nezu was in over his head with the idea that they could face someone from that part of the world.

* * *

The first hint that maybe Natsuo was right to worry was when Shouto entered his house without a single greeting. He came back to his house as soon as the school day was over, lying to Naruto and Midoriya about visiting his mother. As much as Shouto enjoyed their presence, his girlfriend and best friend had the habit of butting in other people's business.

It was normal for his father not to greet him, not with the way he kept being disappointed by his level of power in Yuuei High, but Fuyumi always greeted him with a warm smile playing on her lips.

She would always be the first person in the door, greeting him with a cheerful voice. Questions would be asked about his health and well-being. She would also try to fish some information out of him about his relationship status, making some comment about how she expected him to have a girlfriend.

There was nothing.

Shouto knitted his eyebrows together and made his way through the house. He traced the cabinets, noticing the slight build up of dust. Fuyumi might be a teacher and might get stressed out from her job, but his sister always kept the house clean. Even when the house was spotless, Fuyumi would still clean the place. Natsuo called her a cleaning freak.

From his limited memories of his early childhood, Shouto recalled his mother had been the same.

He paused when he stood in front of Fuyumi's bedroom door. What does he do? Would it be considered a breach of privacy if he entered the room without permission? What would Naruto do in a situation like this? She probably wouldn't even question her actions. Naruto would kick the door open, searching for any clues about where his sister might be.

Shouto took a deep breath, slid the door opened and entered his sister's room.

At first glance, nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. The bed was neatly made like it always were, the pillows fluffed up and her clothes neatly lined up but something nagged him. Maybe it was the way that the bed looked too perfect or the way that he saw that one of her clothes was missing.

Dread began to build up in his stomach. Maybe it was silly but Shouto could remember every dress that his sister owned, which occasions she wore certain dresses for and which dresses that their father brought for her. The dress that was not here was the red dress their father had given her to wear to certain parities that required everyone's presence.

Shouto knew Fuyumi wore that dress when she was trying to impress some person she liked.

He chewed on the inner corner of his cheek and opened her nightstand drawer, where his sister liked to keep her diary. His childhood memories of helping Natsuo steal it had come in useful because Shouto had honestly doubt Fuyumi would have kept it in the same location. He flipped through the pages, looking for any clues that might indicate something strange had been happening in the last few days.

Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. There was no indication of where Fuyumi might have gone but Shouto knew something was up. Even if she went back home with someone, she would have told Natsuo about it.

The fact that there was no sign of her and the fact that it looked like it had been three days since she went missing meant that something happened. Should he inform Endeavour about it? It would be the right thing to do. He hated the man but he was a Hero. This was his job even if the man was doing a crappy job of checking up on his children.

No, he should get more evidence about where Fuyumi was. Maybe Shouto should visit Naruto's friends that had the Quirk to track people down. They could probably help him figure out where his sister was and once the location was pinpointed then he might just tell Endeavour.

He would be willing to forget his pride if it meant that he could confirm his sister was fine. It would kill him if something happened to Fuyumi. He might have never made it clear to his sister but Shouto loves her.

After what Endeavour did to his mother, Fuyumi was the one that acted like his mother. She was the one to worry about him and tried to cheer him up. The one that went to his parent's meetings because Shouto refused to let his father come to them.

He couldn't lose her.

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 **A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter. I would like to hear your thoughts of what could be improved about this story or chapter.**

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 **Hello Everyone,**

 **I apologize for the false alarm but know this might come as a surprise but I decided to redo the whole of Nirvana and split up the whole story. I realized after looking back in a couple of chapters that there might have been some plot holes that have been unintentionally left. There are also several things that I realized I didn't like about the story such as interactions of certain characters, or the lack of interactions.**

 **There are also events that should have been explored earlier. I know that a lot of people like the original version and would like to continue reading it. I have no plans to delete the original Nirvana and it will still be there.**

 **I apologize for this,**

 **STLHero**


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